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 (spring-ish), to NCAA hoops, to Canstruction, to Passover and Easter, to music...

Weather

Here's the paraphrased forecast for this week:

Monday: Cloudy, maybe some rain. Upper 40s.

Tuesday: Sunny and 43.

Wednesday: Sunny and 42.

Thursday: Some sun, mid 50s.

Friday: Cloudy and... 61.

Weekend: Some sun, 40s.

Spring-ish.

NCAA hoops

Monday: The regional final for the Albany bracket of the NCAA women's basketball tournament is at the TU Center. Tournament-favorite UConn will face #7 seed Dayton. Monday 7 pm - $35 / $20 student and seniors

Canstruction

Wednesday: The annual Canstruction exhibit opens at the State Museum. Teams of "architects, engineers, contractors and students" will be creating structures out of canned goods (the food is donated to the Food Pantries for the Capital District at the end of the exhibit). This year's theme is "Heroes!" Visitors can vote for their favorite by donating a canned good in a bin by each sculpture. Runs through April 16.

Arts and sciences

Hunting for food
Monday: "Vegan-turned-hunter" Tovar Cerulli will be at Skidmore for a talk about his work studying food, hunting, and conservation. He's the author of The Mindful Carnivore: A Vegetarian's Hunt for Sustenance. Monday 7 pm - free

Barbara Smith
Tuesday: The NYS Writers Institute has organized a panel discussion centered around noted (local) activist Barbara Smith and the book Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith. Blurbage:

Media personality Susan Arbetter of The Capitol Pressroom will moderate a panel discussion with Smith and Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks, editors of the new book, Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith (SUNY Press, 2014). Immediately following the discussion there will be a reception and book signing.

(This event was rescheduled from earlier this month because of weather.) Tuesday 7 pm, UAlbany downtown campus, Milne 200 - free

Minerals
Wednesday: State Museum curator of geology Marian Lupulescu will be talking about "the geology, mineralogy, and mining history of iron, rare earth elements, and other commodities such as zinc, talc, and wollastonite deposits found in New York State." Wednesday 7 pm, State Museum Huxley Theater - free

"How Storytellers 'Color' Stories"
Thursday: ESPN VP Rob King, who heads up the network's flagship SportsCenter show, will be at Union for a talk titled "The Content of Our Character: How Storytellers 'Color' Stories." Thursday 5:30 pm, Nott Memorial - free

Designing for aging
Thursday: Syracuse University interior design professor Sarah Gillen Redmore will be at Sage for a talk about her work into how to design spaces to make life better for people who are over the age of 55. Thursday 6:30 pm, Sage Albany campus, Opalka Gallery - free

Parakeet Logic
Thursday: A media collage by artist Lindsay Karty called "Parakeet Logic" opens at EMPAC. Blurbage:

"Parakeet Logic" is a spiraling multi-channel sound and video collage, combining trash aesthetics, podcast logic, and amateur video. Drawing from location-based DIY counterculture, Lindsay Karty creates a satirical journey through our technological fetishes, our search for authentic relationships, and the tangles between. This piece is formed by collected language filtered and activated through Craigslist collaborations, handheld video experiments, and a significant repository of things collected over the past two years. These materials are amassed, reduced, and spewed into a study of weird harmonies where some things seem significant, but are actually equalized.

It will be in EMPAC's Studio 2 Thursday and Friday from 10 am - 5 pm. There's an opening event Thursday from 5-8 pm.

Passover and Easter

Passover, the Jewish holiday commemorating the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, begins at sundown on Friday and runs through April 11.

Easter, the Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, is this Sunday. Good Friday, which is commemorates the crucifixation of Jesus, is Friday. (Christmas gets most of the pub, but Easter is the biggest holiday of the Christian religious calendar.)

Music

Monday: Delta Spirit at The Hollow
Indie rock. 9 pm - $18

Monday: Parker Millsap at Helsinki Hudson
Blues. 8 pm - $10

Monday: The Steel Wheels show at Caffe Lena is sold out.

Wednesday: Citizen Cope at Troy Music Hall
"An intimate solo/acoustic evening with..." 8 pm - $26 and up

Thursday: WGNA Secret Star Acoustic Jam at Proctors
Three country performers, revealed on stage. 7 pm - $16 and up

Thursday: Shana Falana at The Low Beat
Dream pop. With: Eternal Crimes, Moon Magick. 8 pm

Thursday: Man About a Horse at Parish Public House
Bluegrass from Philly. With: Olivia Quillio. 8 pm

Friday: Robert Randolph and the Family Band at Putnam Den
Funk and soul. 9 pm - $25

Friday: SHEL at Helsink Hudson
Ethereal vocals and instrumentals. With: Otan Vargas. 9 pm - $15 ahead / $18 day of

Friday: Don Julin & Billy Strings at Caffe Lena
Bluegrass. 7 pm - $18

Saturday: Roots Music Festival featuring Yarn at The Linda
With: The Mt. Olive Baptist Church Male Chorus, Red Haired Strangers, The Doornails, and Matt Durfee. 8 pm - $15

Saturday: Kung Fu + Twiddle at Upstate Concert Hall
Funk + jam. 8 pm - $15 ahead / $18 day of

Saturday: Eastbound Jesus at Caffe Lena
Northern rock. 8 pm - $15

Sunday: Nellie McKay at Helsinki Hudson
Covering songs from the 1960s. 8 pm - $25 ahead / $30 day of

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These are a just a few things for this week, not a comprehensive list. Know of something people should be looking forward to this week? Please share!

Helsinki Hudson and Troy Music Hall advertises on AOA.

photo: Matthew Pandolfe