Weekly Rochester Events #262: Bushnell's Turtle Doesn't Hold Water

Thursday, January 15, 2004

Let me start off by saying that I didn't get to too many shows this week.

See, two Fridays ago, I met this woman and seemed to really hit it off. Allow me to elaborate and jinx the whole thing—for you, my loyal audience's amusement:

I ended up talking to her for four hours or so and had to apologize to several other friends of mine in the following days for deliberately failing to acknowledge them. Although I gave her my phone number, I was sad when she didn't call all week, but I was happy when she did on Saturday. So I forwent seeing the supposedly up-and-coming The Lyres at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) or the rockabilly/trainwreck combo of Krypton 88 and Dang at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) to spend time with just one person. How odd of me, eh?

The question at this point isn't so much "does she like me?" as much as it is "why doesn't she do regular 'I like someone' kinds of things so I can tell?" or "what the hell have I gotten myself into this time?"

Perhaps I instead should be asking myself, "should I write about a possible relationship as it's happening on the off chance that the other party might actually read it and react to it in a negative way?" Nah ... what could possibly go wrong?

[And no, I won't knock on wood.]

With the rest of my week, I did get out to a couple things (mostly before Saturday, though.)

First was Margaret Explosion at The Little Theatre Café (240 East Ave.) on Wednesday after I wrote last week's update. I decided they were, in a more poetic moment, "something akin to the ripples formed when you throw rock into smooth jazz." They distinctly combine jazz and rock with elements of East Indian, African, South American and maybe even a little Klezmer. They're definitely a group to check out if you get the chance.

Next was the Bertrand Russell Society at Verb Café at Writers and Books (740 University Ave.) on Thursday. Oh, that reminds me ... I tried to get to the Thursday Thinkers thing at The Rochester Public Library (115 South Ave.) but the roads were blocked off for some reason and when I finally made it home, I discovered that not only were all three networks (or is it just one big network now?) generating identical streams of un-researched local news, but they failed to mention what the heck happened. I guess the fact that it snowed and has been cold was "news I needed to know" instead.

Anyway, Bertrand Russell Society: I got there a little after they started last Thursday, and it was at best odd and at worst surreal. See, this group of otherwise intelligent thinker-type people get together and act as fans to 20th century philosopher, Betrand Russell. This particular meeting was about the philosopher's humor presented concisely and intelligently by someone who would otherwise be called a 70-something fanboy. Fortunately, the concepts were deep enough that I'm forced to skip an attempt at mocking humor until I have a grasp on it, although I suspect that a deconstruction of postmodernism would lead to a discovery that it both exists and does not exist. (So I lied—at least it was only a half-sentence lie, though. At least I was right that I should have waited to make a better joke.)

In a more terrestrial event that night, I managed to slide my car in the snow and bash the back tire into a curb, causing what I assume is a dent in the bearings and/or bearing chase on that wheel which makes the car sound like a turbo-prop airplane on the highway (the car, not the plane.) Naturally, the alignment is out of whack too. I guess it will either last until it gets warmer and I can fix it myself or the wheel will seize and/or fall off entirely.

More importantly, I limped my noisy car out on Tuesday to go to the show I didn't want to miss at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.). First up was XKS who do this sex-themed, vaguely theatrical/musical, beatbox, bass, keyboard, and vocal ... umm ... performance. Next was Bamm Bamm which is what you get when you combine an excellent drummer and an excellent (left-handed) guitar player (with some effects to fatten up the sound) ... essentially one weird sounding—but good sounding—rock duo. Finally up was Slim Cessna's Auto Club who are indeed a country gospel group, only with enough of an edge that allows them to play at places like the Bug Jar. In all, an odd night.

S A T U R D A Y

O'Bagelo's, 165 State Street, noon. The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Hukkle (The Hiccup), where all the people and animal languages are subtitled, and (A)Torzija ([A]Torsion), with a "choir singing songs to save the life of an epileptic cow" (that's what the movie calendar says...) Both films will be shown starting at 8. [source: Eastman House calendar] Updated: Over at The All-Purpose Room (#8 in the Public Market, off N. Union St.) is a photography and installation by Scott Laird titled Balls and Pins along with a sound installation by Joe Tunis opening tonight starting at 7:00 p.m. [source: Carbon Records calendar] Tonight at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) is top-notch country-rock/rockabilly from Angry Johnny and the Killbillies, bland surf-rock from The Mofos, and solid, simple rockabilly from Diesel Daddy starting around 10:45 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar] Tonight at Acme Bar & Pizza (495 Monroe Ave.) is awesome funk-rock band Astronomical Unit starting around 10 p.m. [source: WBER calendar] Updated: Excellent tight rock/punk-rock from The Retreads and tight, high-energy punk-rock from Bee Eater will be at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: WITR calendar]

M O N D A Y

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day At the Rochester Museum & Science Center (657 East Ave.) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. is a celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day titled Sharing The Vision. [source: WITR calendar] The Cellar Door (146 W Commercial St., East Rochester; formerly Studio 46) apparently has something they're calling Open Mic Comedy Improv presumably starting around 8 or 9. [source: Freetime] Over at Montage Grille (50 Chestnut St.) starting around 9 p.m. is Dave Rivello's 12-Piece Jazz Ensemble [source: Montage e-mail]

T U E S D A Y

Over at Verb Café at Writers and Books (740 University Ave.) tonight is the 2,000 Word Club Open Mike starting around 7 for free. Anyone can show up and read up to 2,000 words. [source: Writers and Books calendar] Irondequoit Public Library, Pauline Evans Branch (45 Cooper Rd.) will be hosting Michael Warren Thomas Reviews Rochester Restaurants starting around 7 p.m. I guess you're supposed to call the library for reservations or something. [source: Freetime] Updated: Over at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10:45 p.m. is Sirsy (I might have gone to high school with the lead singer ... we'll see if the embarrassing yearbook picture pans out), Matthew Cross, and borderline novelty rock/power-pop from The Badenovs. [source: Bug Jar calendar] Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) is hosting an Acoustic Open Mic from 8 to 10. For this one, there's no microphones and it's pretty open ended. [source: Daily Perks calendar]

W E D N E S D A Y

The Little Theatre Café (240 East Ave.) will be hosting the somewhere-between-jazz-and-rock band Margaret Explosion starting around 8:30 p.m. [source: Freetime] Verb Café at Writers and Books (740 University Ave.) will be hosting the Abundance Cooperative Market Book Discussion starting at 7 featuring The Future in the Balance by Walden Bello. [source: Writers and Books calendar] The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Serial Lover starting at 8. A woman accidentally kills off her prospective fiancés. [source: Eastman House calendar] Tonight from 8 to 10 is an Open-Mic Comedy Night at Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) While once it was a workshop type of environment, it's now more-or-less a regular open mic ... by default it's still a place to try out new stuff. [source: Daily Perks calendar]