All Over Albany

Stuff to do this weekend

Top of the weekend to ya. It's the last one of winter. It's also Saint Patrick's Day weekend, so there will be plenty of celebrating going on, including the the parade(s) in Albany on Saturday.

After the jump you'll find our list of stuff to do. Planning something you don't see there?

Share it with the rest of us. And whatever you're up to, have a fantastic weekend.

Albany St. Patrick's Day Parade
Saturday: The 68th annual Albany Saint Patrick's Day Parade steps off at Quail Street and Central Avenue and winds its way down Central and Washington Avenues to South Pearl Street. Saturday 2 pm -- free

And here's more St. Patrick's Day stuff to do.

Jewish Food Festival
Sunday: Congregation Gates of Heaven in Schenectady hosts the annual Jewish Food Festival, with unlimited food samples of traditional and modern foods prepared by restaurants, caterers, and members of the synagogue. Sunday noon-3 pm -- $20 / $8 children 13-17 years / kids 12 and under attend free / $5 discount off admission if you bring 3 non-perishable food items per ticket for the Northeast Regional Food Bank

Ice skating
The Empire State Plaza has extended ice skating season through this weekend. And here are some other places you can skate.

Adirondack Sports & Fitness Summer Expo
Saturday-Sunday: The Saratoga City Center hosts the Adirondack Sports Summer Expo, with more than 100 exhibitors focused on spring and summer outdoor activities. Games, prizes, a rock climbing wall, and more. Saturday 10 am-5 pm, Sunday 10 am-4 pm -- free admission (food or cash donations to the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York will be accepted)

Albany Patroons
Friday/Sunday: The Albany Patroons have two games against the Kansas City Tornados this weekend at the Washington Avenue Armory. Friday 7 pm and Sunday 3 pm -- $10 and up

Maple Weekend
Saturday-Sunday: This is the first two "Maple Weekends" around the state. And handful of participating farms around the greater Capital Region will have maple syrup tastings, demonstrations and other events.

Stage

Other Desert Cities
Friday-Sunday: Schenectady Civic Theater opens a production of Other Desert Cities. A woman announces to her family that she is about to publish a memoir that will reopen old wounds in an effort to dredge up an old family secret. Friday and Saturday 8 pm, Sunday 2 pm -- $20

Curtains
Friday-Sunday: Schenectady Light Opera Company presents Curtains, Kander and Ebb's mystery musical love-letter to the theater. Friday and Saturday 8 pm, Sunday 2 pm -- $22-$28

The Importance of Being Earnest
Friday-Sunday: Curtain Call Theater continues production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. Friday and Saturday 8 pm, Sunday 3 pm -- $25

Bindlestiff Cirkus Cabin Fever Cabaret
Saturday: The Bindlestiff Cirkus Cabin Fever returns to Helsinki Hudson with a cabaret featuring circus, theater, comedy, and musical entertainment including trapeze, acrobats, sword swallowing, juggling and more. Saturday 9 pm -- $25

Comedy

High Mud Comedy Festival
Friday-Saturday: Mike Birbiglia headlines the High Mud Comedy Festival at MASS MoCA. It's a weekend of comedy performances and workshops featuring Nellie McKay, Saturday Night Live alum Sasheer Zamata, Comedy Central's Maggie Crane, Matteo Lane, Joyelle Johnson, and glamazon hip-hop icon Shasta Geaux Pop. Friday and Saturday, various times -- $20-$75

Adrienne Iapalucci / Carolyn Plummer
Friday-Saturday: The Comedy Works in Saratoga presents a double bill with stand-up comics Adrienne Iapalucci and Carolyn Plummer. Friday and Saturday, various times and prices

MopCo Presents: Down the Rabbit Hole and Pilates for Infidels
Friday: MopCo presents a double bill with two Capital Region improv teams doing short-form and long-form unrehearsed improv shows based on audience suggestions. Friday 8 pm -- $10 / $6 for students and seniors

MopCo family show
Saturday: The Mop & Bucket Company presents a family-friendly improv show. Saturday 5 pm -- $10 / $5 kids

Film

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
Friday: Colonie Central High School is screening Bombshell, The Hedy Lamarr Story. Lamarr was a silver screen goddess in the 1930s and 1940s and one of the minds behind technology that laid the ground work for modern mobile phones. Friday 6:30 pm -- $5

Oscar nominees
If you missed some (or all) of the Oscar nominated pictures this year, you still have a chance to catch them on the big screen. The Spectrum is showing The Shape of Water and Three Billboards, and Proctors is screening Call Me By Your Name and I, Tonya.

Vertigo
Sunday: Regal Crossgates is hosting a 60th anniversary screening of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. Sunday 2 pm and 7 pm -- $12.50

Music

Friday: Paramount's Laser Spectacular presents The Music Of Pink Floyd at the TU Center
As it says on the label. 7 pm -- $21.50 and up

Friday: Joe Russo's Almost Dead at The Palace
Rock, mostly Grateful Dead music. 8:30 pm -- $37.50 ahead / $40 day of

Friday: Altan at Troy Music Hall
Traditional Irish music. 8 pm -- $29

Friday: Joan Soriano at Caffe Lena
"Soriano plays steel string bachata with equal parts romance and grit." 8 pm -- $25

Friday: Knuckle Puck at Upstate Concert Hall
Pop punk. With: Boston Manor, Free Throw, Hot Mulligan, Jetty Bones. 6:30 pm -- $18 ahead / $22 day of

Saturday: Pop Evil at Upstate Concert Hall
Rock. With: Palaye Royale, Black Map. 8 pm -- $18 ahead / $20 day of

Saturday: Deadgrass at Putnam Place
"Multi-instrumentalist Matt Turk and Grammy award winner C Lanzbom have joined forces to form Deadgrass, an acoustic five piece band that celebrates the music of Jerry Garcia." With: North and South Dakotas. 8 pm -- $10

Saturday: Thrash for McGrath at The Low Beat and Pauly's
Nine different acts across two venues.

Sunday: The Five For Fighting show at The Egg is sold out

Sunday: Albany Symphony: Pirates on the Erie at The Palace
"Some no good, swashbuckling pirates have taken over the Erie Canal and won't let anyone through. Can Ship-Captain Dave and the brave Albany Symphony musicians trick them into letting all the boats through?" Sunday 3 pm -- $20 / free for kids 12 and under

Sunday: Gibson Brothers Trio at Caffe Lena
Bluegrass. 3 pm and 7 pm -- $40

Sunday: Ty Dolla $ign at Upstate Concert Hall
Rap. With: Marc E. Bassy, TC Da Loc, Dre Sinatra, Toni Romiti. 8 pm -- $25 ahead / $28 day of

Sunday: Nightwish at The Egg
Symphonic metal. 8:15 pm -- $51 and up

Sunday: North By North at The Low Beat
Crunch rock. With: Hasty Page, Subtleties. 8 pm -- $7

Albany Comic and Toy Show
Sunday: The Albany Radisson hosts the Albany Comics and Toy Show, featuring new and vintage toys, comic books, and collectables. Sunday 10 am-5 pm -- $5

Museums/galleries/talks

40th Annual Photo Regional
The 40th Annual Photo Regional opens at the Opalka Gallery on the Sage Albany campus on Thursday, with a curator's tour at 5 pm. On Friday here's an opening reception from 6-8 pm.

Hudson Mohawk Regional Invitational
Friday: The Hudson Mohawk Regional Invitational continues at Albany Center Gallery. The exhibit runs through April 6

State Museum
The State Museum will be closed on Saturday because of a power shutdown. The State Museum continues Votes for Women, about the women's suffrage movement. And the first phase of its new Enterprising Waters: New York's Erie Canal exhibit is open.

Butterflies
MiSci's butterfly exhibit is back. "Watch butterflies at every stage of life - from egg to the chrysalis chamber to adulthood." Saturday 9 am-5 pm, Sunday noon-5 pm -- free with museum admission

The Tang
The Tang Museum has Along the Border, an exhibit featuring instruments made from discarded objects found along the 2000-mile national divide between Mexico and the United States. "These works made from discarded cans, animal bones, shoes, bicycle wheels, leather, children's toys, and more, reveal the human impact of the evolving economic, social, and political relationships between the two nations over the past several years." On view through April 22

University Art Museum
The University Art Museum at UAlbany has two recently-opened exhibits:
+ This Place is a photography exhibit that "explores the rifts and paradoxes of the highly contested spaces of Israel and the West Bank."
+ Hank Willis Thomas: Black Righteous Space is a "sound reactive video installation exploring issues of identity, race, and popular culture."

Albany Institute
Well-Dressed, an exhibit of high fashion from the 19th century, continues at the Albany Institute of History and Art, along with an exhibit about the the anti-suffrage movement in Albany. Also almost its entire collection of Hudson River School works is on display.

The Clark
The Clark now has Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection. (On display through April 22.)

Hyde Collection
The Hyde Collection has Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau. And the new Feibes & Schmitt Gallery is also open.

MASS MoCA
There are a bunch of exhibits on display that make use of its huge gallery expansion.

Wheels at Work
The Saratoga Auto Museum hosts a Wheels at Work exhibit featuring tractors, tow trucks, taxi cabs and other vehicles that went to work.

The Art of Childhood
The Rensselaer County Historical Society hosts The Art of Childhood, an exhibit of selected images of children from babies and toddlers to teenagers on the edge of adulthood selected from their collection.

History of urban development in Schenectady
The Schenectady County Historical Society recently opened a new exhibit called Changing Downtown: The Rise, the Raze, and the Revitalization of Schenectady.

Eagle Watch at Moreau Lake State Park
Saturday: Moreau State Park is hosting an eagle watch this weekend with a park naturalist guide. Bring your own binoculars. Saturday 9:30 am-12:30 pm -- free but registration is required

Arts Center One Giant Try It
Sunday: The Arts Center of the Capital Region has its "One Giant Try It" day. It's an opportunity to tour the center and try various arts in studios there. Sunday noon-3 pm -- free

Tomato seed planting
Sunday: Master gardener Doug Pratt hosts a workshop at Honest Weight Food Co-op about planting tomato seeds. Sunday 3 pm -- free

Farmers' markets
+ The Troy Waterfront Farmers Market is indoors at the atrium. Saturday 9 am-2 pm
+ The Saratoga Farmers' Market is indoors at the Lincoln Bathhouse Saturday 9 am-1 pm
+ The Schenectady Greenmarket is indoors at Proctors. Sunday 10 am-2 pm
+ The Spa City Farmers' Market is inside the Lincoln Baths. Sunday 10 am-2 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

The Albany Institute, Troy Music Hall, Honest Weight, Arts Center, and the Mop & Bucket Company advertise on AOA. And AOA is a sponsor of the ESP ice rink.