Get ready to dodge the raindrops this weekend. Although it isn’t supposed to rain constantly, the National Weather Service says that we’re most likely to have periods of precipitation this afternoon, later in the day Saturday and before noon Sunday. It could add up to an inch or more.
While it will be a damp weekend, it won’t be as cool as originally predicted. Temperatures today should hit the upper 70s, dropping back to the mid-60s tonight. Saturday should see mid-70s, but with a brisk wind as the rain starts up in the afternoon and evening. Sunday’s outlook is breezy with a high around 75 and periods of sunshine after the showers stop.
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You need an invitation to be there in person to witness the installation of Bishop Richard J. Malone as the 14th bishop of Buffalo at 2:30 p.m. in St. Joseph Cathedral, but you can follow the ceremony in several ways on television, radio and the Internet. YNN-TV on Time Warner Cable will air the Mass live, as will WLOF 101.7 FM and WWKB 1520 AM. Streaming it live online will be WBFO-FM, WGRZ-TV and WIVB-TV.
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Snakes gotta crawl, birds gotta fly and every critter under the sun has to eat. How to satisfy their various appetites is the topic of a program called Beast Feast this evening at the Buffalo Zoo. Held in conjunction with First Niagara Ferocious Fridays, in which the zoo stays open late on Fridays all this month, Beast Feast offers an inside look at food preparation for the zoo’s animal collection. Keepers will showcase the stuff their animals chow down in the gorilla vestibule from 6 to 8 p.m. Tours of the animal diet kitchen will be given at 6:30 and 7:30.
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Thanks to a new state law, municipalities can form land banks to acquire abandoned properties so they no longer have to outbid land speculators for them. To take advantage of this, Buffalo has teamed with the cities of Tonawanda and Lackawanna, as well as Erie County, to form the Buffalo Erie Niagara Land Improvement Corp. It holds its first meeting at 10 a.m. in the 10th floor conference room in the Rath County Office Building to review and approve rules for how it will get, hold and dispose of properties.
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Beer lovers will figure they’ve gone to heaven when they walk into the First Niagara Center this evening. The 2012 Buffalo BrewFest, presented by the Craft Beer Exchange, has lined up more than 150 specialty brews for the drinking from the time the taps open at 5:30 until they close at 9:30. They’ll be arrayed on two levels inside the arena and on the plaza out front. Admission is $35 at the door, which includes a souvenir sampling glass and tickets good for tastes of 20 of the beers. Proof of age is required. Proceeds benefit the Buffalo Hearing & Speech Center.
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With interest in Mars at a peak following the landing of the space rover Curiosity on its surface, Buffalo State College’s Earth Sciences and Science Education Department are hosting a Mars Madness Open House from 5 to 8 p.m. in Buffalo State’s Whitworth Ferguson Planetarium. There will be 20-minute sky tours in the planetarium and discussions about what Curiosity has found so far, along with posters and panoramas of Mars and activity tables for kids. Admission is free. Tickets will be needed for a planetarium program, “The Lives and Deaths of Giant Stars,” which comes afterward, starting at 8.
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It’s Firefighters Day at the Erie County Fair in Hamburg. All firefighters and auxiliary members with proper ID get in free. For everyone else, regular prices apply – $10 adults, $7 seniors, $5 students after 5 p.m. and free for kids 12 and under. There are fire truck pulls at 2 and 6:30 p.m., the Fireman of the Year award ceremony at 5:45 and the big parade at 7:15, all in front of the grandstand.
As for music at the fair tonight, look to the smaller stages. Starting at 7, Disco Duck is in Slade Park, Hit-n-Run is in the Carousel Room and Back Beat ‘64 is playing Beatles songs in the 42nd Street Cafe.
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Guitarist George Thorogood brings his Delaware Destroyers and a collection of hard-rocking favorites like “Bad to the Bone” and “One Bourbon, One Shot, One Beer” to the Labatt Canal Concert Series in Ulrich Center City Courtyard, 45 Main St., Lockport. Music starts at 5:30 p.m. with Grammy-winning Amherst native Tom Hambridge, local blues guitarist Bruce Wojcik and the Jim Crean Band. Admission is free.
Meanwhile, the delta blues reigns tonight in the Tralf Music Hall, 622 Main St., with the visit of veteran acoustic bluesman John Hammond. Local blues guitarist Mark Winsick opens. Doors at 7, music around 8. Tickets are $26.
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Other free outdoor performances today, weather permitting, include Terry Buchwald with his tribute to Elvis at noon in the M&T Plaza Event Series at One M&T Plaza opposite Main Place Mall in downtown Buffalo; Glenn Colton at 1 p.m. at the Niagara Falls Public Library, 1425 Main St., Niagara Falls; local talent hosted by Claudia at 7 p.m. in Falkner Park, Main Street, Youngstown; the Akron Community Band at 8 p.m. in Russell Park, Main St., Akron; and Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at 7:30 p.m. in Delaware Park.
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Canadian rock guitarist Rik Emmett, a founding member of the group Triumph, has achieved the status of a national treasure. He just received a Diamond Jubilee Medal from Queen Elizabeth II. He appears at 8 p.m. in the Bear’s Den at Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls. Tickets are $45 and $55.
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Canadian pop and country singer k.d. lang has put aside her smooth Miss Chatelaine stylings and is giving full expression to her multi-octave vocal range with her latest band, Sis Boom Bang. She plays the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater at 8:15 p.m. Tickets are $40.
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The curtain is rising on a couple of new productions this weekend at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. In the Court House Theatre, Ibsen’s classic “Hedda Gabler” opens tonight for a run that continues through Sept. 29. The Shaw goes experimental Saturday night with the opening of “Helen’s Necklace” by Quebec playwright Carole Frenchette in the small Studio Theatre behind the big Festival Theatre. It runs through Aug. 31. For info, visit www.shawfest.com.
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A dozen paintings by the local members of the prestigious American Society of Marine Artists go on display today at the Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park museum with a reception for the artists from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. The exhibit will run through Oct. 30 as part of the museum’s War of 1812 bicentennial celebration. A new commemorative plate featuring a painting entitled “Lake Ontario Squadron off Niagara, c. 1813,” also will be unveiled and made available for sale. The artist, ASMA member and historian Robert Averill, died July 18.
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Karen Donnellan, a native of Ireland who is studying for a master of fine arts degree at Rochester Institute of Technology, makes unusual sculptural objects out of glass. An exhibit of her work, “Essentia: Karen Donnellan,” opens with a reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College as part of the gallery’s M&T Second Fridays program. The exhibit will be on view through Jan. 27.
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Lime green will predominate at Summer Splash, a new cocktail party from 7 to 11 p.m. this evening at Gallagher Beach, 1111 Fuhrmann Blvd., that serves as a prelude to Carly’s Crossing, the open water swim fundraiser Sunday for Carly’s Club at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
Theme for the night is “Step Into the Limelight,” hence the lime green, and there will be signature cocktails, dance music from DJ Johnny Fee, all kinds of raffle prizes and hors d’oeuvres from 31 Club, Bacchus, Encore, Marco’s, Papaya, Salsarita’s, Sinful, Snooty Fox, SoHo Burger Bar and Tempo. Tickets are $75. Get one by visiting www.SummerSplash2012.com. For info on Carly’s Crossing, visit www.CarlysCrossing.org.
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Mixed reviews are greeting the four late summer films hitting local screens today. The spy thriller “The Bourne Legacy,” No. 4 in the Bourne series, stars Jeremy Renner, the star of “The Hurt Locker,” along with Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton and several cast members from the previous Bourne movies, but no Bourne character and no Matt Damon.
The romantic comedy “Ruby Sparks” has real-life couple Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan, assisted by Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Steve Coogan and Elliott Gould, in a tale about a novelist whose main character comes to life. Just in time for election season, there’s “The Campaign,” with comedians Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis squaring off in a congressional race that’s crude and tasteless, but which some reviewers found far more entertaining than real politics. And then there’s “Hope Springs,” with the masterful Meryl Streep salvaging an otherwise dumb story about an aging couple seeking advice from marriage counselor Steve Carrell.
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The Bisons will be sporting jerseys of many colors when they step out at Coca-Cola Field tonight. It’s Disco Night and their uniforms are inspired by the colorful dancing 1970s. After the game against the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees, the groovy threads will be auctioned off to benefit the Hillside Family of Agencies.
All this is part of the regular Fridaynightbash, which begins at 5 p.m. with a happy hour in the plaza beyond center field. There will be special prices on Flying Bison brews and food from BW’s barbecue. First pitch is at 7:05. And after the final out – fireworks!
