The Refrigerators perform in Powers Park in Lansingburgh

The 2015 Powers Park Concert Series comes to a close tonight with ""Country Night" featuring Big Sky Country and Patsy Cline Experience with Courtney Shane.

If you haven't had a chance this summer to check out one of the free concerts in the park, located along Second Avenue between 111th and 110th streets in Lansingburgh, today is the day to catch the series' finale for this popular summer series.

The crowd is dancing at The Refrigerators Powers Park concert.

Two weeks ago, my family and I had a ball at the dance party concert featuring The Refrigerators. The popular band had the crowd up on their feet dancing to a variety of hits such as Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," Pharrell Williams' "Happy," and "Shout" by Otis Day and The Knights.

It got loud near the speakers for Ava and Alyssa

It was the first outdoor concert for my two youngest granddaughters, Ava, 6, and Alyssa, 4, and it was such a kick to see them dancing to the music, singing along to some of the songs and munching on the treats - cotton candy, ice cream and little hot dogs! - offered for sale by local merchants. I hope the fun they had at this event will spark a lifelong love of music in both of them.

Vito Ciccarelli at the concert.

The concerts have drawn big crowds all summer, according to Vito Ciccarelli, who is the musical mastermind behind the series, which this summer has featured such diverse performers as the Jimi Hendrix tribute act Jimi Graham, funk group The Getdown, hometown artist Al Bruno, indie rockers the Chris Dukes Band, rock group Emerald City Band, and Lady Strange.


And it's almost guaranteed that you will find a lot of familiar faces in the crowd at the concerts.The night I went to see The Refrigerators, I had a chance to catch up with Nora Dwyer, John Rustin and Jim Gordon
and meet Jim's  wife Melissa and their adorable son, Liam, who will be celebrating his first birthday on Sept. 11. What a cute little boy!

One of the best parts about living in the Capital Region is the variety of fun things to do here during the summer months. Don't miss today's Powers Park concert series finale. I guarantee you'll have a good time.

The members of The Refrigerators are introduced to the crowd at Powers Park in Lansingburgh

On Wednesday night, we hosted a "soft opening" for The Record's new Community Media Lab.

Guests of honor at the event were people many of you have come to know: Our community bloggers.

The program, which was organized by Tom Caprood, The Record's digital specialist, included some light refreshments and two videos, one featuring some of our bloggers, the other Record employees talking about the newspaper's "digital first" philosophy and its impact on our news cycle.
You can check out both of these videos on our website.

Probably the best part of the evening was the conversation we started with our bloggers. It was a good exchange of ideas and blogging tips, a discussion about how we can all support each other and work together, and ways we all can do a better job serving this community.

I personally enjoyed meeting some of our bloggers for the first time, and I look forward to many more conversations with them in the future.


My thanks to Tina Urzan, who writes "The Way It Is," Sean Wilkes, "Fishing Out Loud"; Peggy "The Dart Lady" Kownack, "Unique Perspective"; Rod Aldrich, "Shamrock Road"; Vito Ciccarelli, "Community Thoughts" and Marcie Prey, "Hellions of Troy Roller Derby," for taking the time to get together with us Wednesday night.

Kudos to Tom for putting together the videos and leading the discussions with me.
By the way, stay tune for details about the official grand opening of our Community Media Lab. We hope it will be a place to be for this community.