All Over Albany

Stuff to do this weekend

Hello, autumn! Where have you been hiding?

This should be a fantastic weekend for apples, pumpkins, cider donuts, and all the basic pumpkin spice things. In typical September fashion, the weekend is filled with festivals, shows, and other events worth checking out.

We've pulled together a few things we thought you might like to try. Doing something you don't see here? Tell us about it in the comments. It's more fun when you share.

And whatever you're up to, have a fantastic weekend!

Troy Night Out
It's the first Troy Night Out of autumn, and it's circus themed. There will be sideshows, fair food, fire dancers, and other circus-themed activities to celebrate the opening of Marquis Productions' This is Not a Test show. Also, Troy Innovation Garage is opening New York State of Design show, a celebration of design with works from around the state. Friday 5-9 pm -- free admission

North Albany Oktoberfest
Saturday: Wolff's Biergarten hosts the annual North Albany Oktoberfest. Beer, German food, music, keg bowling, wiener dog races, and more. Saturday starting at 10 am -- admission $15 ahead / $20 at the door

Saratoga Harvest Festival
Saturday: The Saratoga Race Course hosts the Saratoga Harvest Festival with craft beer, wine and cider, music, and shopping from local vendors. Saturday 1-7 pm -- admission $8 ahead / $12 at door (drink tokens not included)

Altamont Fall Festival
Saturday: The annual Altamont Fall Festival will be held in several venues around the village. There will be music, family-friendly activities, vendors, and more in Orsini Park, Schilling Park, and at the Masonic Temple. Saturday 10 am-4 pm -- free admission

Albany History Race
Saturday: The Albany Public Library's Albany History Race is back. It's an Amazing Race-style history scavenger hunt for experts and novices interested in Albany history. The race starts at the Albany Heritage Area Visitors Center and ends at Albany Distilling's new tasting room. Prizes for the teams that finish with the fastest times. Saturday 2 pm -- free

Warrensburg Garage Sale
Saturday-Sunday: Organizers of the annual Warrensburg Garage Sale claim it's the worlds largest garage sale. Miles of garage sales, craft sales, antiques, food vendors and more. Saturday and Sunday 7 am-6 pm -- free admission

Council of Five Nations Adventure Gaming Convention
Friday-Sunday: Proctors hosts the Council of Five Nations Adventure Gaming Convention. It's the 40th year for the gathering for role-playing games, collectible card games, and other similar games. Friday-Sunday various times

Stage

Cabaret
Friday- Sunday: Schenectady Light Opera Company presents Cabaret, Kander and Ebb's classic musical about Berlin in the days leading up to WWII, starring Brittany Leigh Glenn, Oliver Ord, and James Alexander. It's gotten good reviews. Friday and Saturday 8 pm, Sunday 2 pm -- $22-$28

Sex With Strangers
Friday-Sunday: Capital Rep's first production of the new season -- Sex With Strangers -- continues this weekend. It's about a snowbound blogger, his literary idol, and a tryst turned transformational experience. Friday-Sunday various times -- $20 and up

This is Not a Test
Friday-Sunday: Marquis Productions presents This is Not a Test, a one-man clown performance at the Troy Arts Center. Blurbage:

In a war-torn era, inside a decrepit vaudeville theater, with nothing but a pile of shoes to sleep on, an isolated clown finds shelter. After having survived for a long period of time with only inanimate objects as friends, the clown is shocked to awake one morning to see an audience of people staring back at him. As if observing an animal in a zoo, the audience watches as he sings, dances, and celebrates parties. Comedic vignettes offer a balance for darker content throughout the show. All the while the clown conveys his own resilience to loss and his willingness to seek hope.

Friday-Sunday various times and prices

Lost in Yonkers
Friday-Sunday: Curtain Call Theater presents Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers. Friday and Saturday 8 pm, Sunday 3 pm -- $20

Bing Bamboo Room Burlesque
Saturday: The Bing Bamboo Room hosts a burlesque variety show at Hudson Harbor Steak and Seafood (18+). Saturday 8 pm -- $12 ahead / $15 at door

Boo!
It's the time of the year when some of us like to scare ourselves silly. Here are a few options:

Double M Haunted Hayride
The Double M Haunted Hayrides are back from now through Halloween. various times and prices

Field of Horrors Sneak Peak Weekend
Friday-Saturday: The Field of Horrors haunted attractions in Brunswick is having a sneak peek weekend . Saturday-Sunday 6:30-11 pm -- various prices

Nightmares at Liberty Ridge Farm
Saturday: Liberty Ridge Farm's Nightmares starts this week with six haunted attractions, including two haunted houses and a haunted corn maze. Saturday 7-10:30 pm -- $15-$26

Ghosts in the Yaddo Garden Tours
Friday and Sunday: Yaddo is offering ghost tours of its gardens featuring stories of Native Americans, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Trask Family. Friday and Sunday 5 pm -- $10

Ghosts of Albany Walking Tour
Friday: The Ghosts of Albany Walking Tours work their way through downtown Albany telling "stories of ghosts, antique sites, scandalous tales, haunted places, mysterious sightings of apparitions, strange and unusual accounts of centuries past, legendary stories, folklore and ghostly experiences stranger than reality." They meet at the Hilton at 40 Lodge Street. Fridays 7:30 pm -- $15 per person (make a reservation, space fills quickly)

Comedy

Friday Night Fringe: Electric City Puppet Improv and Down the Rabbit Hole
Friday: MopCo Theater presents Friday Night Fringe with improv by Electric City Puppet Improv and the quirky Down the Rabbit Hole. Friday 8 pm -- $10 / $6 for students and seniors

Spontaneous Broadway
Saturday: MopCo Improv Theatre presentsSpontaneous Broadway. Act one is a mock backers audition, in which the company invents songs based on audience suggestions. The audience votes on a favorite, and in act two, the company makes up the full musical, including costumes, sets and a reprise of the first act song. Friday 8 pm -- $10 / $6 for students and seniors

Film

Spiderman/Batman/Superman
It's a superhero weekend at The Madison Theater with screenings of Spiderman: Homecoming, Batman: The Mask of Phantasm, and the 1978 Superman with Christopher Reeve.

Rikers: An American Jail
Saturday: The Tang Museum at Skidmore College is hosting a screening of the Bill Myers documentary, Rikers: An American Jail, followed by a conversation with two Rikers cellmates. "Rikers Island is New York Cuty's largest jail. It has also been ranked as one of the 10 worst jails in America. Of the more than 7,500 people detained at Rikers Jail on any given day, almost 80% have not yet been found guilty or innocent of the charges they face. This film brings you face-to-face with men and women who have endured incarceration at Rikers Island." Saturday 3 pm -- free admission

Drive-ins
Drive-in season continues:
+ Malta:Screen 1: The Lego Ninjago Move, and It | Screen 2: Kingsman: The Golden Circle and American Assassin
+ Jericho: Kingsman:The Golden Circle , and Atomic Blonde
+ Hollywood: It, and Annabelle Creation

Music

Friday: Digitour at Lucky Strike
"DigiTour is the #1 social media tour - giving fans the 'Best Day Ever' for over 5 years." 5 pm -- $25

Friday: Corey Harris at Old Songs
Blues. 7:30 pm -- $23

Friday: Van Gordon Martin at Parish Public House
Reggae. With: Benjamin Franklin Band. 8 pm

Friday: Life Of Agony at Upstate Concert Hall
Metal. With: Madball Leeway, Brick by Brick, Born Low.

Saturday: Tango Fire at The Egg
"[T]welve spectacular dancers and a quartet of brilliant musicians from Buenos Aires..." 8 pm -- $34

Saturday: Bobby Long + Brian Dunne at Caffe Lena
Singer/songwriters. 8 pm -- $16

Saratoga Showcase Of Homes Weekend 3
Saturday-Sunday: This is the final of three weekends for the Saratoga Showcase of Homes, a builder showcase of 18 new homes in Saratoga County. Saturday-Sunday 11 am-5 pm -- $20

Empty Bowls of Troy
Sunday: The Italian Community Center of Troy hosts its annual Empty Bowls fundraiser. Pick a bowl, fill it with food made by local restaurants and providers, then keep the bowl. Sunday 2-3 pm -- $15 advance / $20 at the door

Mer Mixer
Friday: Via Aquarium hosts its first Mer Mixer, an after-hours cocktail party for adults at the aquarium. Music, hors d'oeuvres, signature cocktails, and aquarium exhibits. Friday 6-10 pm -- $50

Museums/galleries

State Museum
The State Museum recently opened the first phase of its new Enterprising Waters: New York's Erie Canal exhibit.

Albany Institute
The Albany Institute recently opened an exhibit that looks at the anti-suffrage movement in Albany.
Also on display at the Albany Institute an exhibit of their Hudson River School works -- more than 80 pieces, almost the entire collection. And it has a new exhibit about the anti-suffrage movement in Albany.
Admission to the Institute is free on Saturday with a downloaded Museum Day Live ticket from the Smithsonian.

MASS MoCA
Multimedia artist Laurie Anderson's exhibit at MASS MoCA invites viewers to explore a multi-functional constellation of galleries and installations including a working studio, audio archive, exhibition venue, and a virtual reality environment that highlights her creative process and some of her best known works. (On view through 2018)
 
Other Side: Art, Object, Self
The Tang Museum at Skidmore College recently opened a new exhibit called Other Side: Art, Object, Self. This group show features contemporary art that examines ways in which artists use materials, found objects, or even their own bodies to explore questions of national, cultural, and self-identity. (Through December 30)

The Clark
The Clark has an exhibit of work by Helen Frankenthaler (through October 9).

Hyde Collection
The Hyde Collection recently opened its new Feibes & Schmitt Gallery. It includes 40 works of modern art donated by Schenectady residents Werner Feibes and the late James Schmitt. The exhibit includes works by Josef Albers, Jean (Hans) Arp, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, Louise Nevelson, George Rickey, Bridget Riley, and Andy Warhol.

USS Slater
The USS Slater, the destroyer escort historical museum in Albany, is open for tours. Wednesday-Sunday 10 am-4 pm -- $9 / $8 for seniors / $7 for kids 6 to 14 / free for kids 5 and under

Berkshire Botanical Garden
The Berkshire Botanical Gardens in Stockbridge are open for the season. every day from 9 am-4 pm -- $15 / $14 seniors / $12 students / kids under 12 are admitted free

Cider donuts
It's cider donut season. Try one, or try a lot. Here are a few places to try.

Farmers' markets
+ Troy Waterfront Farmers Market is on River Street around Monument Square. Saturday 9 am-2 pm
+ The Delmar Farmers Market is Bethlehem Central Middle School (332 Kenwood Ave). Saturday 9 am-1 pm
+ The Saratoga Farmers' Market is outdoors at High Rock Park Saturday 9 am-1 pm
+ The Schenectady Greenmarket is at its outdoor location around city hall. Sunday 10 am-2 pm
+ The Spa City Farmers' Market is on the lawn of the the Lincoln Baths. Sunday 10 am-3 pm.

Troy Makers Market
Saturday: Local craft vendors will display and sell wares at the Troy Makers Market in conjunction with the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market. Saturday 9 am to noon

Day trips
Explore New Paltz, head for The Berkshires, the Catskills, or Columbia County.

The Albany Institute, Capital Rep, Downtown Troy BID, Wolff's, and the Mop & Bucket Company advertise on AOA.

photo: Brian Cotterell