Cheap Fun
The Huyck Preserve
The Rensselaerville Falls at the Huyck Preserve.
Looking to stretch our legs and get some fresh air this weekend, we headed out for the Huyck Preserve in the far southwest corner of Albany County.
We had a great time. Have a look...
Outdoor ice skating in the Capital Region
Al fresco skating: Get it while it's cold!
Owen emailed recently:
I think a post on all the places in the region to ice skate would be a good idea.
We agree -- it is a good idea. So we put together a list.
It turns out there a bunch of places in the Capital Region that you can skate outside (alas, still no skating at the ESP). If you've got other suggestions, pass them along...
It's pick-your-own blueberry time
Summer desserts start here.
We're right in the middle of the local blueberry season. Here are a handful of places you can pick your own blueberries (and maybe raspberries, too).
Frisbee golf in the Capital Region
No carts, no bags, no clubs, no caddy -- just you and your Frisbee.
I'm not much for golf. I mean, I play occasionally and all, but I find it... frustrating. I like the being outdoors part, and the walking, but you can try to hit a golf ball twelve times and not get it right (or, at least, I can). Add to that the expense of the clubs and the greens fees and I can understand why Mark Twain called it "a good walk, spoiled."
Disc golf, on the other hand, is something I can get behind.
If you can throw a Frisbee, you can play. And a Frisbee is pretty much all you need to play the two courses in the Capital Region. It's practically free and waaaaay more fun than golf.
Trust me on this.
Capital Region birthday freebies
Bombers big birthday margarita
You say it's your birthday! Great! Time to milk it for all it's worth. And as it turns out, it's worth a lot.
Lots of Capital Region businesses offer birthday specials, but some of those specials take the proverbial cake. Here's a list of Capital Region birthday freebies to check before you head out to celebrate your b-day.
Capital Rep pay what you will - Boston Marriage
Yes, we were surprised to learn that David Mamet , the guy who wrote "Glengarry Glen Ross", wrote a play about Victorian era relationships. But not nearly as surprised as we were when we learned he wrote children's books (Really? What would those be like? "The Itsy Bitsy F*&$#ing Spider??!", "Coffee is for Closers Charlie Brown!?").
Anyway, If you're a fan of Mamet's work, or you want to try something new, tonight is the night. It's Pay What You Will night for Mamet's "Boston Marriage" at Capital Rep. It works like it sounds -- you pick the price.
Tickets are on sale now, but get down to the theater as soon as you can -- pay what you will nights tend to sell out.
A dollar well spent
A hard choice.
Crisan's $1 scoop of gelato is back.
We recommend the tiramisu flavor.
That is all.
Casablanca at The Palace on Monday
Here's the best pre-Valentine's Day date value in the Capital Region. Casablanca -- on the big screen at The Palace -- for $5.
Yes it's on a Monday night, but it's Casa-freaking-blanca! The classic tale of intrigue and romance is #2 on AFI's list of the top 100 films (Citizen Kane is #1). Has it become a little cliche-- maybe. But we don't care. Bogart is charming, Bergman is gorgeous, Paul Henreid is dashing. But our favorite has always been Claude Rains as the cad of a police chief ( "I'm shocked, shocked to learn that gambling is going on in this establishment.")
For 20 bucks you can make a night of it with the dinner and a movie package at The Victory Cafe. Casablanca isn't one of the movies listed on their website, but we checked and the package still applies.
Here's lookin' at you kids.
Synecdoche in Schenectady
Synecdoche in Schenectady. Dude, that's meta.
Yes, it's finally happened. Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche" has come to Schenectady. Proctor's is showing the Kaufman flick which stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a Schenectady theater director who gets a MacArthur grant and builds a giant New York city, casting actors to play himself and everyone else in his life.
And you can see it in Schenectady. The only way this gets more meta is if Kaufman sits next to you and provides a running commentary. We caught it last week at the Spectrum. It left us with a charlie horse in our heads, but it was worth seeing. You can catch it tonight or at one of 3 showings on Wednesday for $6
Also, if the eloquence of the new administration has you missing words like misunderestimated and phrases like, "gynecologists can't practice their
love with women" you can catch Josh Brolin as #43 in Oliver Stone's "W" at Proctor's today and tomorrow. That one is only $3.
Great local autumn walks
It's peak time for a walk.
We're big fans of autumn walks. There's the foliage, of course (we refuse to use the term "leaf peeping" -- it just sounds wrong). But we also love the cool air, the warm sun, the bright blue sky, and the crunch of leaves.
Here are a few of our favorites places to take a walk this time of year...
Lost Horizon at The Palace
Searching for Utopia (aren't we all)? Albany's Palace Theater is screening Lost Horizon, Frank Capra's classic film about the search for Utopia in the Himalayas. Made in 1937, there are some not-so-subtle references to capitalism v. communism in this story of plane crash survivors who wander into Shangri-La. It earned Capra a Best Director nomination, even though he famously burned an early copy of the film. Seven minutes of missing audio were found and the film was restored using the audio and still photos. The Palace is showing the restored version.
Think a $5 movie is as close to utopia as you can get? Well, $20 gets you the movie and dinner at the Victory Cafe.
Shangri-La? Maybe not. Cheap fun? Absolutely.
Three things to see now at the NYS Museum
Yeah, man, he's the groovy candidate.
Heads up: the Latin American and Caribbean Art exhibit at the New York State Museum closes in two weeks.
We wouldn't go out of our way to see this exhibit as it seems the folks at MoMA were pretty stingy in deciding which "selected highlights" from their collection would make the trip up the Hudson. But we did enjoy seeing a few pieces, including Botero's Mona Lisa, Age Twelve (there's a Diego Rivera, too).
If you do stop by, be sure to take a few minutes to check out the great Nelson Rockefeller campaign memorabilia on the wall leading into the gallery. Campaign buttons were a lot more fun back in the day. (A few more of the pieces, including a Rockefeller potholder, are after the jump.)
And one more stop to make -- the Cohoes Mastodon is back on display. It's way in the back of the natural history section.
Any one of these things alone isn't really worth the trip, but all three aren't bad on on a rainy day.
Capital Rep's pay what you will
What is art?
Heads up- tomorrow is pay what you will night at Capital Rep. Yep, you name the price.
The play is Art. . It's a Tony Award winning comedy that raises interesting questions about art and friendship. Questions like "if your friend pays a ton of money for a big white canvass with a few lines on it, is he gullible or cutting edge?" And "if you think he's nuts, do you tell him, or keep your mouth shut?"
Curtain is at 7:30 PM. Tickets go on sale at 10AM. They sell out quickly so get in line early. If you're sending someone to buy them for a group, just remember the limit is four tickets per person.
Walking the Albany Rural Cemetery
Yeah, it does sometimes feel like you're in a Buffy episode.
Many of Albany's famous names found a final resting place in the Albany Rural Cemetery -- it just took them a little while.
One of the biggest and most comprehensive collections of 
Boy boy, crazy boy... if dancing gang members on the rooftops of New York do it for you, bring your posse to Albany's Palace Theater tonight for a $5 screening of West Side Story. This musical Romeo and Juliet set in late 1950's NYC won 10 Academy Awards back in 1961, including best picture and best score (Leonard Bernstein and a very young Stephen Sondheim.) The dancing gang member thing may not work so well in 2008, but the choreography is fabulous, the score holds up nicely and the story is timeless. 
And now for something completely different. If you're sick to death of the reruns you've been watching since like November, here's a short, strange trip you might want to try. The 
If you're taste in films is a little more old school, you might want to check out 
The Madison Theater is showing a collection of locally-produced indie shorts this week for just $6 (or as the poster says "Six films for $6"). The showcase runs Monday through Thursday, with showings at 7:15p and 9:35p. The Madison's site has 
If you live downtown you can walk. Otherwise,
... said Anonymous about The Albany metro area is "brainy"