LarkFest

Quick! What happens on the third Saturday in September? Beer, fried dough, zeppoles, music, more beer . . . sounds like any old Saturday to us.

No, this is LarkFest, the one time each year when Lark Street is closed off to traffic and the people party up out in the urban wild. OK, this is technically the second time this year, with Art on Lark having become a full-on street festival. But LarkFest is the original, and it’s not going quietly.

On that note, this year’s live music lineup is among the most varied you’ll see at such a festival. Headlining is electronic-music auteur, DJ, and singer-songwriter Moby (pictured). We expect he’ll mix music from his latest record, Wait for Me, in with classic numbers like the one with the blues guy and the one with Gwen Stefani. Other national—and international—acts include Talking Heads-inspired Irish band Bell X1, Red Bull-inspired Brooklyn duo Matt and Kim, and Chicago’s Company of Thieves. Local acts on the main stages are Queer for Astro Boy, Ten Year Vamp, Lunic, and the Burnham Brothers.

That’s not all: The Hometown Stage will sport music from MotherJudge, Rick Whispers, the Ameros, and Marcus Ruggiero, as well as poetry from Albany Poets and fashion courtesy of Discard Avant Garb. The Townsend Park Stage, in its second year, features a full slate of B3nson Recording Co.-related acts, including Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned and Scientific Maps, among others.

And there’s something for the kids too: the Family Stage has everything from folk music to dance theater to a fire juggler. Not the guy you usually see juggling fire in Center Square—that guy doesn’t have a permit. This dude is a licensed professional.

Bring the family, and an appetite (for fun!) to LarkFest this Saturday (Sept. 19). The event runs from 10 AM to 5:30 PM, and it is, as ever, free. Call the Lark Street BID at 434-3861 or visit larkstreet.org for more information.

You, the Living

Roy Andersson doesn’t make many films. Partly, this is because the commercial realities of the business are just as difficult for the independent-minded filmmaker in Sweden as they are in Hollywood. But Andersson is also a meticulous artist, one who supervises every aspect of his hard-to- describe, cosmic comedies.

His most recent film, 2007’s You, the Living, finally got a U.S. release this summer. It’s an episodic comedy, a series of philosophical blackout scenes with a dreamlike logic. Roger Ebert wrote that it presents “comedy with a twist of a knife . . . You, the Living is hypnotic.”

And the only regional screenings of You, the Living are this weekend at Saratoga Film Forum. If you want get an idea of what Andersson’s sensibility is like, visit SFF’s Web site (address below), where you can not only see a trailer for the film, but a clip reel of his TV commercials (which are hilarious).

You, the Living will be screened tonight (Thursday, Sept. 17) and tomorrow (Friday, Sept. 18) at 8 PM, and Sunday (Sept. 20) at 7 PM, at Saratoga Film Forum (Saratoga County Arts Center, 320 Broadway, Saratoga Springs). Tickets are $6, $4 members. For more info, visit saratogafilmforum.org.