Odds & Ends @ the End of the Week

UP AGAINST THE WALL…: Under the direction of choreographer Amelia Rudolph, the members of the anti-gravity dance company Bandaloop turn the exterior walls of MASS MoCA into their daring vertical stage for performances at 3 & 5pm today through Sunday, August 23.

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Don’t forget, if you’re in North Adams, about the DownStreetArt Initiative — take a quick (or extended) spin through downtown North Adams and see some world class art. We’ll have a more in-depth look next week, but this is the last week to see Bryan Heggie as the featured artist at Avalon Seafood Gallery.

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Casperland is looking for 8-bit/chiptune musicians to perform at their gallery space at Troy Night Out next Friday, although they may have found someone by now. You can contact them through their website.

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EMPAC at RPI in Troy just released their Fall 2009 schedule.

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KIDZAPALOOZA: If the kids are driving you crazy as the summer begins to wind down, there’s a wealth of great children’s entertainment to keep them occupied on Sunday, August 23. Uncle Rock and the Playthings team up with Paul Green’s School of Rock All-Stars for Kidstock, a free show at 1pm Sunday at the Belleayre Music Festival in Highmount. It’s a benefit for Snuffy’s Food Pantry Program, so bring along a pet food donation, please.)

At 3pm, children’s music faves Terri Roben and Andy “The Music Man” Morse team up with some surprise special guests to perform the music of kids’ music fave Paul Strausman at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs. Strausman died suddenly in December, and the kids’ show is a benefit for his own children.

And then you can wrap up your Hudson Valley-trotting day at 7pm Sunday with a stop at the Central Park Music Haven in Schenectady, where the summer concert series wraps up with a free performance by Ruth “Miss Music Mobile” Pelham, and her pals, Ramblin Jug Stompers.

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IT’S ALL DOWNHILL FROM HERE: Sometime about 1pm on Sunday, August 23, the wheels will get rollin’ for the 15th annual Artists Soapbox Derby, “speeding” down Broadway in Kingston towards Rondout Creek. Last year, there were 42 “cars” entered in the derby, and they were cheered on by more than 8,000 art-car enthusiasts. This year’s event promises to be even bigger and better. But not necessarily faster, because, you see, it’s not really a race – entries are not judged on speed, but rather on creativity and engineering. But there’s more than $2,000 in cash prizes, so roll on…

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ON THE FRINGE: This is definitely the odd-ball billing of the week. The Woodstock Fringe Festival is presenting the second of three “Evenings of Music, Humor and Wisdom” at the Byrdcliffe Theatre in Woodstock on Sunday. Joe Raiola, a favorite with Fringe audiences for his critically acclaimed one-main show “Almost Obscene,” will serve as host of an entertaining and provocative evening that features pop-rocker Marshall Crenshaw (who recently released another new nugget-filled album, “Jaggedland” on the 429 Records label), comedian Denny Dillon (a “Saturday Night Live” alum) and Stephan Rechtschaffer (co-founder of the Omega Institute). No word yet on whether they plan to end the evening with a jam on “Louie, Louie”…