Weekly Rochester Events #391: Seeing Lake Huron From Champlain

Thursday, July 6, 2006

I thought I'd start out by mentioning that The Rochester Outdoor Museum of Art (ROMA) has started accepting entries for the Big Picture Photo Mosaic Contest. You can either enter a picture for free that may be used as a 4-inch by 6-inch tile or for $20 you can enter the contest for the image that will become the 64-foot by 42-foot large image. See, the tile images get placed so the composite of their color makes a small part of the large image, and the combination of all the tiles creates a large image viewable from a distance.

Anyway, last Wednesday I made it to the Polapalooza festival at The Liberty Pole (1 Liberty Pole Way) As far as I knew, this was the first time the event was held, and as such, it was pretty well established. There were a handful of vendors and several stages with bands. Attendance was diminished from the rain. My only concern was the security situation. They blocked off the streets around the Liberty Pole, but there were only entrances at Main and on Liberty Pole Way at Achilles yet not at Franklin, even though it was also closed. The police were present to direct traffic a bit further away from the gates, but the main security had on coats that said "Eastman District" (I think.) I never saw what exactly transpired, but I saw a few people angrily chased away at the gate (twice with black men who appeared to me to be beggars) and one guy get handcuffed and paraded through the festival via Franklin Street. Considering the small population present, it seemed overly aggressive to me.

Later that night I went to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) to check out the show there. I noticed they had painted the back room with bright orange swirls — it's nice to see some color back there. Anyway, the first band I saw was Love of Everything whom I had seen in a different form 2 years ago. This time it was an electronic effects soloist who ends up with a bright, synth-pop-like sound ... a synth-pop-acoustic-soloist if you will. Next was Cex who were spectacular. If you can imagine starting from 1990's house beats divvied up between a synth and a drummer and adding a male and female vocalist all distorted and effected to psychedelic proportions, you'd be somewhere close.

Thursday night after stopping by Monty's Korner (355 East Ave.) with the Drinking Liberally crew, Peri, Ali, and I went to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) We missed all but the last synth-pop/novelty song from Worm Quartet but stayed for The Torsos from Space. I hadn't noticed their satirical element before — their straightforward groove-metal performance kept me from noticing their oft silly lyrics.

On Friday I spent most of the day working on a new pocket LED light. It's pretty sweet [either that or "not interesting at all," depending] in that I used a microcontroller to drive everything. It has a true-color LED which the computer can make output any color, a UV LED, and a laser. It all packs into a former car alarm remote no bigger than a box of matches. Plus I can reprogram it ... right now it just acts as a basic flashlight/laser pointer, but I'll add cool stuff later.

Ali and her friend Stacie came out my way late and we headed to Lux Lounge (666 South Ave.) for a bit then made the "good idea at the time" mistake of staying out way too late at Mark's Texas Hots (487 Monroe Ave.) Naturally I had a cheeseburger plate, and decided that I needed to eat the whole thing. This did not make me feel good on Saturday.

So on Saturday I got the bike trailer hitched up and headed to The Rochester Public Market (280 Union St. N.) Expecting that things might close early, I went to Abundance Cooperative Market (62 Marshall St.) after that then went to O'Bagelo's (165 State St.) which was closed. I crossed to St. Paul over The High Falls Gorge (Platt St at Browns Race, the Pont De Rennes Bridge) and loosened the trailer hitch/axle bolt crossing those railroad tracks. Fortunately I was blocks away from Full Moon Vista Bike & Sport (180 St. Paul St., in the Smith-Gormley Company building) so I borrowed a wrench for a minute and got it all tightened up. From there I headed down South and found Open Face (651 South Ave., right by the corner of Hickory) closed as well. I stopped in the new place Nook (658 South Ave.) and checked out all the neat, charmingly kitschy stuff they have. I ended up having lunch up the street at Taco John's (489 South Ave., formerly Ly Lou's Pearl of the Orient) for another excellent meal.

Unfortunately all that riding left me burnt out and exhausted. That night I stopped briefly at Starry Nites Café (696 University Ave., formerly Moonbeans) and got to see Whatsie. They're a duo with a male singer/guitarist and a female singer who sound great together ... they do covers and originals in the light acoustic-rock genre.

On Sunday Ali went to Connecticut for a vacation. She had encouraged me to follow my idea of taking a day off and not doing anything for the rest of the day, so I tried pulling that off.

Well, almost: I had a situation-comedy-situation present itself when I got a call from my friends Tom and Dani to help move a piano. Seriously. It was an easy task in description: barely 350 pounds to be elevated 4 steps and rolled into place. Well, it was more like 800 pounds and included borrowing the cargo ramp from a new neighbor's rented moving van to negotiate the four-steps-plus-threshhold. Nonetheless, this was the only time my day of rest was interrupted. At least I got some food out of it.

When I returned home, I washed up a bit then retreated to the porch for cheese, crackers, wine, and pink grapefruit marmalade. I started reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. As I read into the dusk, I came upon the passage, "as men on a dark prairie liked to see the lighted windows of a train going past, her achievement, the slight power and purpose that gave them reassurance in the midst of empty miles and night — so she wanted to feel it for a moment, a brief greeting, a single glimpse, just to wave her arm and say: Someone is going somewhere . . . ." This was just before the words on the page succumbed to the darkness. I took a moment and listened to the sound of the street, consoled that there were people who had somewhere to go. That's why I like the city, I guess.

Monday I decided to cut out caffeine for a while to reset myself. This of course, leads to being completely dysfunctional and depressed, not to mention a bit of a headache (but nothing as bad as a lot of people get.)

Tuesday I got out again ... this time to see the fireworks downtown. I thought the show was quite good this year, especially toward the end when they really brought out all the colors. As a side note, though, avoid the east side of Court Street because Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (99 Court St.) completely blocks your view of the low stuff.

But related to the whole decaffeinated depression, I got to thinking about how our whole country can be crumbling around us — rampant poverty, unsustainable standard of living, etc. — yet people seem to be unusually concerned lately about when I'm going to paint my house. What the fuck? I mean, what set me off was the police description of an armed robbery on the street near my house and I'm getting chastised a bit for allowing the "Hedge Bindweed" / "Wild Morning Glory" / "Calystegia sepium" to grow unchecked. Again, I ask, "what the fuck?"

Slowly the Federal Government is chipping away at our rights granted in the Bill of Rights but nobody seems to care. It's pretty much just a handful of people who are trying to stop it, and they are mocked and belittled as being no-good activist hippies.

Wasn't our country founded by people who all cared? Didn't they all get involved?

Well, no. Just like now, nobody really wants to be hassled. We don't want someone else meddling in our affairs, and we complain when we have to pay taxes, and we don't like the people at the airport looking through our bags. However, as long as things aren't too bad — especially for us, or rather, as long as somebody else is getting screwed worse — we roll over and don't really care.

The only difference is then the people in charge decided to give the little guy a shot. They set up a government that was forbidden to hassle people. Unfortunately now, the people in charge want to tighten the screws.

Well, as long as it's people like me who get screwed worse, it's all okay, right? After all, the Bill of Rights is so 217 years ago ...

T H U R S D A Y

This afternoon from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. is artists creating graffiti-style art for the Up Against The Wall show that opens tomorrow at The Rochester Contemporary Art Gallery (137 East Ave.) [source: Rochester Contemporary calendar] [all ages] This afternoon at 6:30 p.m. at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) is part of their Garden Vibes featuring zydeco band The Creole Cowboys. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages] The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing the second pilot to the television show Star Trek "Where No Man Has Gone Before" early, at 7 p.m., followed by Star Trek: The Motion Picture starting at 8 p.m. Note also that this is the first of the "Popcorn Movies" series where, for the first time in the 55-year history of the Dryden, you can eat in the theater. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages] Over at Starry Nites Café (696 University Ave., formerly Moonbeans) starting around 8 p.m. is the acoustic duo Red Branch. [source: Starry Nites calendar] [all ages] Tonight at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) is Don Cabellero, all the cacophony and precision of rock-and-roll distilled into one band: Stinking Lizaveta, and Trees Are Down starting around 9:30 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar] [18+] Energetic, disjoint rock/ska band The Sweet Action, and The Thermadors will be at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: Monty's Krown MySpace page] [21+] Pure Kona Poetry Open Mic Night is at Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) tonight starting at 7:30. [source: Daily Perks calendar] Drinking Liberally meets at 8 p.m. tonight at Monty's Korner (355 East Ave.) [source: RocWiki calendar]

F R I D A Y

Tonight at The Rochester Public Market (280 Union St. N.) is a couple tight modern blues/rock performers: The Chris Duarte Group, and Joe Bonamassa starting around 6 p.m. [source: Up All Night website] Tonight at the Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) is another "Popcorn Movie" double-feature. First, at 7 p.m. is Captive Women taking place in the year 3,000 after a nuclear war. Next is Mad Max at 8:30 p.m. in which a motorcycle gang attacks the wrong family (and as an added bonus, shown in its original version with Australian accents, not dubbed American as is often screened.) [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages] Tonight at 7 p.m. is the opening reception for Up Against The Wall at The Rochester Contemporary Art Gallery (137 East Ave.) which runs through August 27. The reception features music by Em Dash and Strange Montgomery. [source: Rochester Contemporary calendar] A|V Art Sound Space (N. Union St. at Trinidad St., #8 in the Public Market, formerly the All-Purpose Room) will be hosting Up the Fury, The Backup Plan, Dead Radical, great, wild, classic-style punk from Destrux, and Hangin' Tuff starting around 7:30 p.m. [source: A|V Space website] Skeletonwitch, Aegean, and Orodruin will be at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) for an early show starting around 8 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar] [18+] Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) will be hosting good acoustic soloist with a country twang, Nora Kaminski starting around 8 p.m. [source: Daily Perks calendar] [all ages] Tonight at 8 p.m. and every day through July 16 is Taming of the Shrew performed by The Rochester Community Players / The Shakespeare Players at Highland Bowl (South Ave. at Robinson Dr.) [source: Gay Alliance website] Tonight at The Club at Water Street (204 N. Water St.) is The Town Pants starting around 9 p.m. [source: Water Street calendar] [all ages] Over at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10:30 p.m. is fun ska from Mrs. Skannotto, and Room 30. [source: Monty's Krown MySpace page] [21+]

S A T U R D A Y

O'Bagelo's, 165 State Street, noon. Today from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. is The Corn Hill Arts Festival (Frederick Douglass St. and Edinburgh St., in the Corn Hill Neighborhood). [source: Freetime] The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Lemming starting at 8 p.m. It's a psychological thriller about an inventor and his wife and their increasingly strange relationship with the wife of the inventor's boss. The film will be screened again tomorrow at 4 p.m. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages] Ryuko Mizutani will be playing the Japanese koto at Starry Nites Café (696 University Ave., formerly Moonbeans) starting around 9 p.m. [source: Starry Nites calendar] [all ages] Updated: Apparently the show at The Montage Live (50 Chestnut St., formerly the Montage Grille) with My Penis, The Isotopes, and Fallguy has been cancelled. Apparently the club is temporarily closed until further notice. [source: band e-mail] Over at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10:30 p.m. is fat/full, fast bar-rock band The Spaces, The Enemy Ace, and Christopher Walken (the band, not the guy). [source: WBER calendar] [21+] Updated: Over at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10:45 p.m. is the return of The Purrs, The True Believers, and either excellent power rock from Bee Eater (as listed on the Bug Jar calendar) or equally excellent, female sex-energy charged rock from Yer Mom (as heard from Joey in Yer Mom). [source: Bug Jar calendar] [21+] Tonight's another Betty's Sing-a-Long at Betty Meyer's Bullwinkle Café (622 Lake Ave., a.k.a. "Bullwinkle's") starting around 10.

S U N D A Y

The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Across the Pacific in which a spy heads to Japan starting at 7 p.m. followed by a screening of Let There Be Light which is a documentary about U.S. soldiers being treated for mental problems received in war. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages] Tonight at Boulder Coffee Co. (100 Alexander St.) is NativSun starting around 8 p.m. [source: Rochester Music Coalition calendar] [all ages] The Rochester Rocky Horror Picture Show, "A Rather Tasteless Joke" will be at RIT (One Lomb Memorial Dr., campus map) in Building 6, Room A205 tonight at 9 p.m. [source: the proverbial grapevine]

M O N D A Y

Pete Yorn will be at Record Archive (1880 East Ave.) starting around 6 p.m. prior to his show at Water Street. [source: WBER calendar] [all ages] Tonight at A|V Art Sound Space (N. Union St. at Trinidad St., #8 in the Public Market, formerly the All-Purpose Room) is Vampire Belt, often semi-melodic fast-paced noise from Pengo, and Larry J. Patti / Chris Reeg / Joe Tunis starting around 9 p.m. [source: A|V Space website] Bored? Why not check out 1980's DJ night at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) starting around 11 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar]

T U E S D A Y

This morning at 7:30 a.m. in the cafeteria overlooking the arboretum in Bausch and Lomb (140 Stone St.) is the Artists Breakfast Group meeting ... anyone interested in art or creativity is invited. Tonight from 6:15 p.m. to 8 p.m. is the another of the Tuesday Nature Nights Guided Bike Ride this time in Seneca Park Zoo (2222 St. Paul Blvd.) and along the Genesee Riverway Trail. [source: City Hall press release] Tonight at The Eastman Lounge (109 East Ave., at the East Avenue Commons apartments) at 7 p.m. is Dentefit 2 to benefit the uninsured with their dental needs. Scheduled to perform are cacophonous rock band Rockstars, superfast synth-pop novelty songs from Worm Quartet, great power rock from The Earl Cram Revue, Milky Way Smith, Stolen Bigwheels, good mellow, down-tempo soloist Little Yellow Bird, very tight modern rock band Veluxe, The Ciggaregrets, Chief Sky Walk, The Snakes of Tape Hiss, Jon and the Whiteys, and Electric Organic. [source: band e-mail] The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Freud starting at 8 p.m. Find out what makes Mr. Cigar tick. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages] The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) will be hosting good high-energy punk-rock from The Grievants, and A Televised Reality starting around 9:30 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar] [18+] Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) is hosting an Acoustic Open Mic from 8 to 10. [source: Daily Perks calendar] [all ages]

W E D N E S D A Y

Tonight from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. at The Liberty Pole (1 Liberty Pole Way) is another Polapalooza street festival, this time featuring Daara J. [source: City Hall press release] The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries) starting at 8 p.m. about a man taking a long car trip and dreaming about his youth as he dozes. Followed by De Düva: The Dove, a parody of Ingmar Bergman's films. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages] Tonight at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) is 1960's-style rock from St. Phillip's Escalator, and The Dirty Faces starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: Freetime] [21+] Poor People United meets tonight and every Wednesday at 7 at St. Joseph's House of Hospitality (402 South Ave.) [source: the proverbial grapevine] There's an Open Mic for Acoustic Music at Boulder Coffee Co. (100 Alexander St.) tonight around 8. [source: the proverbial grapevine]

Polls | Other Projects

DreamHost Web Hosting
I use DreamHost to run JayceLand.com. Click the ad to buy hosting and I'll get money to run my site. Hooray!

Store at CafePress
Buy some JayceLand junk at sky high prices!