Weekly Rochester Events #392: The Dutch Block

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Well I had a busy week ... a lot of it spent with Ali since she was on vacation. Anyway, on Thursday she and I went to The Memorial Art Gallery (500 University Ave., near Goodman St.) to check out the exhibits there. In the relatively new Rochester Biennial, I really liked the glass sculpture by Michael Rogers. I saw him speak at a "Networking Event" earlier this year at The Arts and Cultural Council for Greater Rochester (277 N. Goodman St.) and he showed slides of his works that are now on display. I also enjoyed Robert E. Marx's Considering the Voluntary Absence of a God which was quite evocative. From there we had a great lunch at Magnolia's Market and Deli (366 Park Ave.)

That night we headed out to the Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) to see the Star Trek stuff there. First was the episode from the television series Star Trek, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" which was tremendously corny. I was disappointed but not surprised they were showing it off DVD rather than the source film stock. Star Trek: The Motion Picture was of course on film and as Trek-fan-centric as possible with those unnecessarily long shots of the exterior of the Enterprise. Not to mention, the laugh-inducing Shatner moments when Kirk implores, "Bones! ... I ... need you. I ... need ... you," and later the same for Spock. At least we got popcorn.

An amusing touch to our visit to Lux Lounge (666 South Ave.) afterward was that the friendly dog that came over and laid at our feet was the same one we saw at Magnolia's earlier in the day ... we never got to meet the owner, though.

Friday I decided to check out some tents I picked up curbside last year sometime. One was this stinky-but-functional canvas pup tent, but the other was a monstrous 7' x 9' nylon one with about 6' of headroom. It smelled a bit like an attic so I left it outside but I figured it would be a great primary tent for Burning Man (The Man, Black Rock City, NV) ... I still have the one I bought last year too. I also recently picked up a "Saw Table" curbside that allows you to put a circular saw upside-down and use it as a table saw. I've been meaning to get one and once I got it set up I didn't like how brutally dangerous it looked. I had a bunch of scrap lumber lying around and I cut it all up in short order.

After that I decided to work on a full-size mockup of how I wanted to attach joists to beams for my friend Sondra Carr's Facing Our Fears project she's doing for Burning Man. Well, the first cut was to rip a 2x4 in half, so I fed a 6-inch piece into the saw. Unfortunately, it bound against the bar at the back of the table so I had to adjust it. I think I turned around to look for a tool or something when I managed to stick my finger into the business-end of the blade.

I was fortunately wearing leather gloves (and if you know about table saws, doubly fortunate that I had a block of wood in there so the glove didn't snag and drag my hand into the hole) but unfortunately the gloves were no match for 2 horsepower of spinning steel. I cut my finger pretty bad. It hurt a lot, but not to the point of debilitation ... I yanked the glove off, ran inside and grabbed a big gauze pad and wrapped my finger up then went out and threw the tools in the garage and house. I got my wallet, keys, and cell phone and found a neighbor to bring me to the emergency room at Strong Memorial Hospital (601 Elmwood Ave.)

Now when I tell people, "I cut my finger on the table saw" what they (so far) always hear is, "I cut my finger off on the table saw." I did not cut my finger off. Without showing gruesome pictures, look at your left hand and make a line across the tips of your index finger and middle finger. At about that angle, I chopped off about a dime's thickness on my middle finger.

So Ali rushed over when I got hold of her and we spent about 5 hours in the emergency department. I didn't get any stitches because there's nothing to stitch. I replace the bandages daily and have a little splint on it to keep me from bumping it into things, so I had to learn to type with three fingers on my left hand — or ls vrything I typ woul hav look lik this, I guss. It's healing up pretty fast and I'm hoping to be able to switch to smaller bandages by next week.

Anyhow, after that we went to Veneto Woodfired Pizza and Pasta (318 East Ave, was 330 East) for a delicious dinner and then went to Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) to see some bands and wait for her friend Stacie. Unfortunately, the intensity of the day's events left us too exhausted so we just went home and crawled into bed early.

On Saturday we got together and went to The Rochester Public Market (280 Union St. N.), O'Bagelo's (165 State St.), and Abundance Cooperative Market (62 Marshall St.) together ... it was quite a bit of fun. That night we headed out to this private party for some friends of mine way out in the middle of nowhere in Macedon near the Erie Canal. We were having a pretty good time but decided to cut things short and meet once again with Stacie, this time at Vertex (169 N. Chestnut St.) It's the end of their joint vacations so it was high time to party late.

So on Sunday I got up and had a bit of black tea: my first caffeine in a week. I figured I'd give it a good old "reset" as I was up to about 8 proper (6-ounce) cups of coffee each day and it wasn't having any effect. The tea actually had an effect for a change. I guess those three disfunctional days and the mild but unstoppable headaches were worth it.

That afternoon, Ali, Stacie, and I got together once again and went to The Corn Hill Arts Festival (Frederick Douglass St. and Edinburgh St., in the Corn Hill Neighborhood) We got some food at the food court and were both disappointed and a little scared of it. I got chicken fingers and fries and discovered the ketchup had fermented while sitting in the heat. Yuck. Ali's Indian food tasted a bit off ... probably [retrospectively, definitely] not bad. I also thought the festival was much smaller and attended by far fewer people than last year. Odd.

On Tuesday we went to the Dentifit show at The Eastman Lounge (109 East Ave., at the East Avenue Commons apartments) and got to see Gaybot bring a bit of craziness to the place and then The Earl Cram Revue rock things up a bit. We didn't stay long and called it an early night once again.

Well, I'll cut it short this week [I should probably watch how I phrase things] and get some other stuff done around the house.

T H U R S D A Y

The Monroe County Fair (2695 East Henrietta Rd, Henrietta) opened yesterday and runs through Sunday. [source: Monroe County Fair website] The High Falls Festival Site (Browns Race and Commercial St.) will be hosting Johnny Winter, David Gogo, and Hypnotic Clambake starting around 5:30 p.m. [source: Up All Night website] Tonight at 7 p.m., Dan Neuberger will be giving an Artist Talk about his exhibit Uncluttered at Image City Photography Gallery (722 University Ave.) [source: Arts and Cultural Council e-mail] The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Space Seed at 7 p.m., an episode from the original Star Trek television series for free followed by the feature film spawned from the episode Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at 8 p.m. (for regular admission.) As this is part of their Popcorn Movies, they'll be selling snacks in the lobby (to which we all can go, per the intermission.) [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages] Tonight in Kilbourn Hall at Eastman Theatre (60 Gibbs St.) at 7:30 p.m. is Arabic Music, Past and Present with George Sawa, and Suzanne Meyers Sawa. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar] [all ages] Tonight at 8 p.m. at Johnny's Irish Pub (1382 Culver Rd., still smoke-free) is a Comedy Benefit Show for the The American Diabetes Association featuring Dan Liberto (of the The Comedy Company), Tiny Glover, and Ralph Tetta. [source: Johnny's Irish Pub calendar] The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) will be hosting The Good Anna, Larval, and The Blizzards starting around 9:30 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar] [18+] The Cheyenne Supper Club (61 Commercial St.) will be hosting pure instrumental funk from The Filthy Funk starting around 9:30 p.m. [source: Freetime] Over at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10:30 p.m. is The Brokedown. [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 South East Area Coalition (SEAC) (1045 South Clinton Ave.) from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. is the unveiling of the models submitted for the ARTWalk (University Ave. at Atlantic Ave.) Art In Transit artistic bus shelter project. The models will be on display from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday at the SEAC offices. [source: ARTWalk e-mail] Tonight at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) is The Last Minute Blues Band, starting around 6 p.m. and then it's The Filthy Funk starting around 9:30 p.m. intermingled with DJ's. [source: Bug Jar calendar] Tonight from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at The Center at High Falls Fine Art Gallery (70 Brown's Race) is the opening of the new show Magic, Fantasy, and Dreams. [source: the proverbial grapevine] The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing a triple-feature of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Ghostbusters, and The Three Stooges in Spook Louder. It would be great with popcorn ... would you like some popcorn with that? Yes: have some. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages] Tonight at Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) is Phil Marshall, the charismatic and stylistically varied soloist Scott Regan, and the really talented guitarist and singer Kinloch Nelson starting around 8 p.m. [source: Daily Perks calendar] [all ages] Tonight at 8 p.m. is the opening of Say You Love Satan, a new play at Shipping Dock Theatre (31 Prince St., new location at Visual Studies Workshop) The play runs through July 29 with showtimes at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and a special "Pay What You Can" show on Sunday, July 16 at 2 p.m. [source: Shipping Dock Theatre mailing] Starry Nites Café (696 University Ave., formerly Moonbeans) will be hosting Tony Sparks starting around 9 p.m. [source: Starry Nites calendar] [all ages] Tonight at 9:15 p.m. is the start of The Hill Cumorah Pageant (Hill Cumorah, Palmyra, N.Y.) for this year. The pageant is also performed tomorrow and the 18th through the 22nd at the same time. [source: Freetime] As part of The East End Fest (East Ave. at Scio St.) tonight, fun, tight modern-rock/covers band The Meddling Kids will be finishing the night in Milestones (170 East Ave.) at 10 p.m. [source: band e-mail] Tonight at Spy Bar (139 State St.) is complex, hard-hitting, mid-tempo, slightly off-balance rock band Kill Myself on Monday, and The Atrium starting around 10 p.m. [source: band e-mail] [21+] Tonight at Lounge 11 (60 Browns Race, in the Centers at High Falls) is wicked fun percussive groove-rock from The BuddhaHood starting around 10 p.m. [source: JamBase calendar for Rochester] [21+]

S A T U R D A Y

O'Bagelo's, 165 State Street, noon. Today and tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at The New York Museum of Transportation and Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad Museum (6393 East River Rd., West Henrietta) is their Gala Weekend featuring trolley rides. [source: Freetime] Today from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Mt. Hope Cemetery (1145 Mt. Hope Ave., the South Gate) is a Grove Avenue Stroll. [source: Freetime] Witty and accomplished acoustic soloist Brian Coughlin, Kathryn Mostow, and Joe Crookston will be at Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) starting around 8 p.m. [source: Daily Perks calendar] [all ages] The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Interkosmos starting at 8 p.m., a mockumentary about East German cosmonauts who start an in-space romance traveling to Jupiter and Mars in separate capsules. Filmmaker Jim Finn will be on hand to introduce the film along with two of his shorts, Wüstenspringmaus and El Güero. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages] Female sex-energy-spewing rock band Yer Mom, and excellent rock band The Grinders will scare the heck out of the patrons at The Flipside Bar and Grill (2001 E. Main St.) starting around 9 p.m. [source: Freetime] The Cheyenne Supper Club (61 Commercial St.) will be hosting good bar-rock/cover band Blue Jimmy starting around 9:30 p.m. [source: Freetime] Updated: Please note that The Meddling Kids show at A-Pub Live (340 East Ave. ... or thereabouts) has been canceled by club management. [source: band e-mail] Pretty typical punk-rock band Sally Bee, Faded Grey, and The Maria Betts Experience will be at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: Monty's Krown MySpace page] [21+] Hunters, Run!, and folk-rock soloist with occasional backup from a drummer and a musical saw player/backup singer called The Minstrels will be at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10:45 p.m. [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

Over at Starry Nites Café (696 University Ave., formerly Moonbeans) starting around 4:30 p.m. is Jean Dutille. [source: Starry Nites calendar] [all ages] Over at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) starting around 5 p.m. is an ill-defined Free Benefit Show with food and starting around 8 p.m. is the excellent chaotic rock-jazz of Gaylord, The Lazers, great rock-and-roll from The Grinders, and excellent punk-rock from The QUiTTERS. [source: Bug Jar calendar] Fascinating experimental percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani will be at The Bop Shop (274 N. Goodman St., in Village Gate Square) starting around 8 p.m. [source: Bop Shop calendar] [all ages]

M O N D A Y

Tonight at The Robach Community Center (1 Beach Ave., Rochester, NY 14612) at 7 p.m. is the presentation of The Final Port of Rochester Master Plan ... ready for public comment. [source: City Hall press release] Tonight at the Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) is another Suprise Cinema at 8 p.m. in which the title of the film will be revealed no sooner than 8 p.m. [source: Eastman House 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 Bullet Train To Vegas, Blueprint to a Fire, and Straight No Chaser 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 another of the Tuesday Nature Nights "Trees in Our Neighborhoods" Walk at the University of Rochester Arboretum at The Rush Rhees Library in The University of Rochester (Library Rd. at Intercampus Dr., details on River Campus Map). [source: City Hall press release] The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Sinful Davey starting at 8 p.m. based on the life of David Haggart, a Scotsman who committed a daylight robbery and a couple people in his Highlands hideout town try to draw him away from his lawless ways. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages] Over at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) starting around 9:30 p.m. is The Perpetual Motion Roadshow, and terrific disorienting chaos from Gaybot. [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 the last of the Polapalooza street festivals, this time featuring Cyro Baptista's Beat the Donkey. [source: City Hall press release] Tonight at The Club at Water Street (204 N. Water St.) is Lucky Boys Confusion, Army of Freshmen, and Punchline starting around 8 p.m. [source: Water Street calendar] [all ages] Over at Water Street Music Hall (204 N. Water St.) starting around 8 p.m. is Cracker. [source: Water Street calendar] [all ages] The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing 8 1/2 starting at 8 p.m. You know ... one of those Federico Fellini films you should have seen before ... about a guy going mad making a film. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages] Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (99 Court St.) will be hosting music-playing gumbo maker The Sauce Boss starting around 10 p.m. [source: Dinosaur Bar-B-Que calendar] 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

This week's award goes to Writers and Books (740 University Ave.) for consistently not bothering to update the calendar for the summer months and instead just leaving it broken. Congratulations, Writers and Books!

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