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 (cooler), to county fairs, the last week at The Track, to EMPAC, to comedy news quiz, to all the summer things, to music...

Weather

Here's the paraphrased forecast for this week:

Monday:Sunny and low 80s.

Tuesday: Repeat.

Wednesday: Sunny and 85. Maybe a thunderstorm.

Thursday: Sunny and mid 70s.

Friday: Sunny and low 70s.

Cooler.

September

It starts this week (Wednesday)! And the upcoming weekend is Labor Day weekend. It's time to do all the summer things you've been hoping to do but haven't done, yet. (And if "doing nothing" is the summer thing you have in mind, great.)

The Track

It's the last week of the season at the Saratoga Race Course. The season wraps up on Labor Day. Saturday is the Woodward Stakes, one of the bigger races of the season. And Sunday is a gate giveaway day, a Saratoga long-sleeve pullover shirt. (And, of course, there is no racing on Tuesday.)

County fairs

County fair season wraps up this week with three fairs around the region:
+ Tuesday-Labor Day: The Fonda Fair at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds. It's the county fair for Fulton and Montgomery counties.
+ Wednesday-Labor Day: The Columbia County Fair at the fairgrounds in Chatham
+ Wednesday-Labor Day: The Schaghticoke Fair at the fairgrounds in Schaghticoke. It's the county fair for Rensselaer County. This is the 197th year for Schaghticoke Fair -- it's said to be the 3rd oldest fair of its type in New York State.

Outdoor movies

Capitol Park After Dark
Wednesday: The Capitol Park After Dark series of outdoors movies in West Capitol Park wraps up its season with The Wizard of Oz. (Rain location is ESP Convention Center meeting room 6). Wednesday 8 pm -- free

Deja View corrected
Thursday: The Deja View series in downtown Albany's Tricentennial Park will be showing Salt. "Patrons are encouraged to bring chairs and blankets to view the movie..." Thursday 7:45 pm -- free

Wait, Wait

Thursday: The popular NPR show Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me! will be at Tanglewood to record its weekly comedy news quiz episode. Thursday 8 pm -- $24 and up

Baseball

Thursday: The ValleyCats start their last homestand of the season The Joe with a game against Staten Island, part of a three-game series. Thursday 7 pm -- $5.75 ahead / $7 day of (and up)

EMPAC

Thursday: EMPAC opens its new season with artist Patricia L. Boyd, who will be presenting a new video work commissioned by EMPAC:

The project is grounded in Boyd's research into what she calls "the protocol of production-as-exhaustion," which acknowledges the debt (of time, vitality, and labor) that must be paid to capitalism by every living body, as well as the internal economics of self-preservation that a body must undertake to honor this debt. In light of such demands, Boyd's work depicts an "unproductive" body within a structure of "wasted" time.

Poet Anne Boyer will also read a new work to accompany the video. Thursday 7 pm -- $6

Music

Wednesday: Bella's Bartok outside The Egg
"[O]ne of a kind Bohemian Klezmer Punk Pop Dance music." A Made in the Shade show. noon -- free

Thursday: Paddy Kilrain at The Low Beat
With: Chelsea Takami, Francesca Shanks, Biota Fox, Triya Love. 7:30 pm

Friday: The Robert Cray Band at The Egg
Blues. With: Shemekia Copeland. 8 pm -- $29.50 and up

Friday: Boston Pops and The B-52s at Tanglewood
The bands hits with orchestra backing. 8 pm -- $22 and up

Friday: Rob Hamilton "108 Troubles" at EMPAC
A performance using EMPAC's new 496-channel wave-field audio system. 7:30 pm -- free

Friday: The Orange at The Low Beat
With: Gobhi, Kitari. 8 pm

Saturday: Zac Brown Band at SPAC
Country star. With: Drake White and The Big Fire. 7 pm -- $32.50 and up

Saturday: Boston Pops Swing Orchestra "Dancing Under the Stars" at Tanglewood
"[A] festive, toe-tapping performance to close out the 2016 season in style." 8 pm -- $22 and up

Saturday: Dave and Phil Alvin at Helsinki Hudson
Roots/alt-country. With: Sarah Borges. 9 pm -- $25 and up

Saturday: Everton Blender at MASS MoCA
"Reggae dance party, straight from Jamaica." 8 pm -- $10 ahead / $16 day of

Sunday: Blink-182 at SPAC
Pop punk vets, now without Tom DeLonge. With: A Day to Remember, All Time Low, DJ Spider. 7 pm -- $25 and up
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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!

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photo: Alain McLaughlin Photography, Inc