JayceLand's Weekly Rochester Events #345-348: Gone Fishin'

Weekly Rochester Events #345-348: Gone Fishin'

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Ok, this week I'm going to close JayceLand for a while while I'm gone. Last year I faked it while I was away, but as you might already know, I'm working on this project called The Bike With 2 Brains for Burning Man (The Man, Black Rock City 2003, NV) which starts in a couple weeks. But first I'll be out in Denver to visit some people. If you're dying to send me a letter, try:

Jason
Camp CampCampCamp in Alternative Energy Zone
Catharsis and 5:00
c/o BRCPO
Burning Man
Gerlach, NV 89412

Anyway, I pretty much did a regular (if a little light) update for this coming week and some highlights until mid-September, but I thought I'd let everyone "play at home." It's the Do-It-Yourself JayceLand Kit. Here's the instructions:

First, open the following links to find out what's going on around town. I recommend tabbed browsing for neatness.

Little Theatre's "Coming Soon" page usually shows a couple movies that aren't actually scheduled to appear in the coming week. Get on the mailing list and wait for the update.
Bug Jar's website has a very accurate calendar.
Montage Grille usually lists what happened last week. Sometimes they show events in the future, but you're better off on their mailing list.
Water Street Music Hall lists events for the Music Hall and the Club side, but it's so far behind that you should prepare to find events elsewhere.
Java's has an events calendar and sometimes they have bands and stuff. They were good about updating it until a couple months ago.
The Bop Shop has a lot of shows listed at Milestones, but look for the free shows in the atrium instead.
Paradigm Café's calendar is no longer updated for some reason, but I check anyway just in case.
Johnny's Irish Pub might have some cool acoustic group or other thing going on.
Dinosaur Barbeque might have some really cool blues group.
The German House used to list shows but now not so much.
The Keg Sports Bar is kind of a typical sports bar, but early on they tried having bands.
The Landmark Society of Western New York has a virtually unusable events page. It works by showing the next chronological event, but what if I want to look ahead? Dates would be nice.
Daily Perks has a decent and generally accurate calendar.
Starry Nites's calendar is also accurate but the information is often abbreviated for space, so check Freetime for details.
Rochester Public Library's calendar has events listed all over and it used to be updated much more frequently.
University of Rochester Calendar has pretty much nothing, but maybe in a month or so.
RIT's College Activity Board CAB has always been incompetent (even when I was there way back years ago) but might as well look to see if anything is going on.
RIT's Java Wally's occasionally has a show or something worth checking out.
RIT Events Calendar is probably someone's project that won't work next year.
Visual Studies Workshop sometimes has events, but you'd never know it from their website.
Hochstein School of Music has the occasional show that seems to be worth checking out.
Eastman Theatre Calendar is generally accurate but a bit sparse on details ... lots of stuff is free or cheap and it's probably worth going to almost anything.
Ossia New Music lists cool alternative-style music shows when the school year starts.
University of Rochester's Some Assembly Required improv troupe had this calendar that required Internet Explorer, but maybe Firefox will work. Wait until fall, though.
Abundance Coop just recently deleted their website ... sometimes people play music on Saturdays.
Rochester Genealogical Society has the occasional interesting lecture ... I have yet to go, though.
A|V Artsound Space has a pretty good website and calendar, but be careful that you don't copy anything that's duplicated at Carbon Records.
Writers and Books finally got a webmaster, but all the dates are out-of-whack and it seems there's only recurring things planned lately.
Genesee Center for the Arts is pretty accurate but shows are often months apart.
Rochester Contemporary has a stylized website, but the events list has proven to be sporadically unreliable, but their home page is usually accurate if there's something going on.
Memorial Art Gallery has interesting lectures sometimes.
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra no longer lists shows in any usable way as best I can tell. The shows are always too expensive, but I like to know if there's something I'd be willing to pay that much for.
Geva Theatre lists a calendar, but you really have to peruse the press releases to know what's going on.
Downstairs Cabaret has a clumsy calendar, but it's not too bad once you get used to it.
Blackfriars Theatre has a new season starting pretty soon.
Shipping Dock Theatre is still active and their new season should be up in a bit.
Eastman House added a flashy new calendar which actually seems to work; plus it's very accurate.
The City of Rochester lists press releases at the bottom of the page and it's a handy way to see what they're scheduling. The e-mail updates are pretty useless as events past by a week often get sent as current.
Carbon Records calendar lists almost exactly the same things as A|V Space with a few exceptions all around town.
Rochester Music Coalition calendar sometimes lists shows that aren't listed elsewhere, plus it appears to be updated by the bands.
Jambase occasionally has a show that I haven't caught any other way.
Whole Lotta Shakin' is about the radio show but there's a small event list centered around the rockabilly nature of the show.
WITR events calendar pulls from Freetime and Bug Jar calendars as well as other sources and there's a handful of surprises now and then.
Garage Pop Records lists, well, the Garage Pop shows. Even if listed elsewhere, this is the most accurate source for their shows.
RocWiki events page is user-updated, so sometimes people take the time to put in some unique thing.
WBER has a local concerts calendar, but "local" means all over New England (which isn't so bad in itself) but they often list shows on the wrong day, time, venue, or city (i.e. some venues in Rochester are listed as Buffalo and vice versa.) They seem particularly anti-local-music.
VisitRochester calendar worst calendar design yet: alphabetical order with no priority for repeating events
Freetime is the backup plan to catch anything that isn't above.
Yahoo! Movies has the commercial movies this week.

Next, find information on all the bands and performers that you haven't seen. I search out GarageBand.com, MySpace.com, and Google. For MySpace, try "myspace.com/BandNameWithNoSpaces" (capitalization is ignored) and if they use "the" at the beginning of their name, try it with and without the "the." For Google, try a couple different things with the band name: in quotes, then look for a URL by removing all the punctuation from their name and searching ... try appending "band," "music," "rock," or "rocks." For the ones you have seen, check your notes and give a description.

Likewise, search for any venues you don't already have info on. Use Google to find if they have a website. Up until today I was using Maps On Us but they recently broke all the old links, so every one of my address links is broken. I took a crack at using Google Maps but it's not perfect.

Then it's pretty easy to set up a list of things going on, putting each day in vague order of morning, afternoon, early evening, and night. Find out which shows you think you'll like and mark them. Find one or two shows each week that people should really go to.

After that it's no big deal ... just write an essay about what you did last week and throw in some intelligent philosophy.

Repeat each week.

M
O
V
I
E
S

Kontroll (at The Little) - Some strange movie about a bunch of outsiders who live in an outsider world.
Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise (Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, at The Little) - [straight from IMDb:] A boy sent to a Maoist "rehabilitation" camp in the mountains falls in love with the village tailor's granddaughter.
Broken Flowers (at The Little) - An accomplished lothario goes on a hunt for a son he never knew who's now 19 years old.

August 18

Over at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) starting around 9 p.m. is Gil Mantera's Party Dream whom I describe thusly: "it's as if they grabbed disco, synth-pop, and power-pop by the balls and demanded all their money — and collected the payout." [source: Bug Jar calendar] [18+]

Pure Kona Poetry Open Mic Night is at Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) tonight starting at 7:30. [source: Daily Perks calendar] [all ages]

Tonight, Friday night, and Saturday night at 9:30 p.m. is the River of Light laser show at The High Falls Gorge (Pont De Rennes Bridge.) [source: City Hall press release] [all ages]

August 19

Today at Genesee Pottery at The Genesee Center for the Arts (713 Monroe Ave.) is the start of Black, White and Color - An Exhibition of Floral Photographs and Vessels by Marsha King and David King. The show runs until August 29. [source: Genesee Center for the Arts calendar]

The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Good Housekeeping starting at 8 p.m. A toy collector and his blue-collar, late-blooming-lesbian wife are featured in this low-brow War of the Roses waiting for their divorce. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages]

August 20

O'Bagelo's (165 State Street), noon.

The Montage Grille (50 Chestnut St.) will be hosting Trip Throttle, Prospero, and Chapter 2 starting around 9:30 p.m. [source: Montage e-mail]

The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) will be hosting awesome punk-rock from The Blastoffs, The Voodoo Dollies, good punk-rock/fast-rock/a little surf-rock band Angel, Dust & Hoffman, and good punk band with a bit of an Irish slant, Tom Foolery and the Shenanigans starting around 10:45 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar]

Today at A|V Art Sound Space (#8 in the Public Market, off N. Union St., formerly The All-Purpose Room) is the start of Two Please, photographs by Scott Laird with a sound installation by Joe Tunis. The show runs until September 10. [source: artsound website]

Over at Richmond's (21 Richmond St.) starting around 10:30 p.m. is great rockabilly band Krypton 88. [source: Whole Lotta Shakin' calendar]

Tonight's another Betty's Sing-a-Long at Betty Meyer's Bullwinkle Café (622 Lake Ave.) starting around 10.

August 21

This evening at 8 p.m. outside The Rochester Visual Studies Workshop (31 Prince St.) is an Outdoor Screening for the Monthly Indymedia / TV Dinner Film Series featuring Eyes on the Fries, Wegmans Cruelty, and short films by Dave Puls and Mark Levy. [source: the proverbial grapevine]

Davenport, The Skaters, and Joe+n will be at A|V Art Sound Space (#8 in the Public Market, off N. Union St., formerly The All-Purpose Room) starting around 9 p.m. [source: artsound website]

Starry Nites Café (696 University Ave., formerly Moonbeans) is hosting their weekly Open Mike Poetry tonight at 7 p.m. [source: Starry Nites calendar] [all ages]

Today from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. is another Community Garage Sale at The Rochester Public Market (280 Union St. N.) [source: City Hall press release]

August 22

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]

August 23

Tonight is another Tuesday Nature Nights Guided Bike Ride from 6:15 p.m. to 8 p.m. of the Aug 23�Guided Bike Ride, High Falls Neighborhood Meet at the Pont de Rennes, behind the Centers at High Falls. Ride will visit the Susan B. Anthony and Corn Hill Neighborhoods. [source: City Hall press release]

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] [all ages]

August 24

Poor People United meets tonight and every Wednesday at 7 at St. Joseph's House of Hospitality (402 South Ave.) [source: the proverbial grapevine]

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] [all ages]

Tonight at The Club at Water Street (204 N. Water St.) is another Open Mic Wenzdaze with Acoustic Café from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and then Rock-n-Roll Circus starting at 9 p.m. [source: Water Street calendar]

There's an Open Mic for Acoustic Music at Boulder Coffee Co. (100 Alexander St.) tonight around 8. [source: the proverbial grapevine] [all ages]

August 25

Tonight at A|V Art Sound Space (#8 in the Public Market, off N. Union St., formerly The All-Purpose Room) is Omkara, and impressive, organic, experimental jazz from The Blood and Bone Orchestra starting around 8:30 p.m. [source: artsound website]

Tonight at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) is good, ethereal, bouncy, rock/pop-rock from Make Believe, Aloha, and down-tempo medium-fi synth-pop from Roger Houston starting around 9:30 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar]

August 26

The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be presenting The Bunny Remakes starting at 8 p.m. Animator Jennifer Shiman will be on hand to talk about her works of Internet Flash-based, bunny-starred, short animations of famous movies and to discuss her other works. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages]

Tonight at The Montage Grille (50 Chestnut St.) is the one-and-only Bo Diddley, and tight, rockabilly-ish 1960's rock from The Hi-Risers starting around 9 p.m. [source: Montage calendar]

Updated: Tonight at Spy Bar (139 State St.) is excellent high-power rock band The Earl Cram Revue starting around 10 p.m.

August 27

The Queers, The Spunks, rockabilly-ish band (but with a theremin) The Irving Klaws, and supreme rock-and-roll from The Grinders will be at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10:45 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar]

The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Monty Python and the Holy Grail starting at 8 p.m. and tomorrow at 5 p.m. Some knights go out on their respective insane quests. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages]

I guess there's no Bug Jar Fest this year at Highland Bowl ... it was scheduled for today but alas, without me around there's just no point, now is there? [source: the proverbial grapevine]

August 29

Over at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) probably starting early around 9 p.m. is super friendly folk-synth-hip-hop from Mad Happy. [source: Freetime]

Today is the last day to see Black, White and Color - An Exhibition of Floral Photographs and Vessels by Marsha King and David King at Genesee Pottery at The Genesee Center for the Arts (713 Monroe Ave.) [source: Genesee Center for the Arts calendar]

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]

Tonight at Verb Café at Writers and Books (740 University Ave.) is another Wide Open Mike with Norm Davis starting at 7:30. [source: Writers and Books calendar]

In theory, there is another Emerging Filmmakers Program tonight at The Little (240 East Ave.) at 9:15 p.m., but I haven't heard anything about it so your guess is as good as mine.

September 2

V-J Day

The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Clockwatchers starting at 8 p.m. A group of temps work through their bland jobs, but even at this seemingly inconsequential level, corporate greed is always in play. Preceded by the short film Lovely. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages]

Tonight at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) is good surf-rock influenced punk-rock from The Priests, and the recently reunited punk-influenced hard-edge rock from The Purrs starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: GaragePop e-mail] [21+]

September 3

O'Bagelo's, 165 State Street, noon.

Today at The Rochester Public Market (280 Union St. N.) from 10 a.m. to noon is another Chef's Day event. [source: City Hall press release]

September 4

Tonight at The Rochester Contemporary Art Gallery (137 East Ave.) is the last day to see (un)bound: An Exhibition of Artist's Books. [source: Rochester Contemporary calendar]

The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing A Clockwork Orange starting at 8 p.m. A violent young man is cured of his violent ways. (Heh heh.) [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages]

September 5

Labor Day

The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be having another installment of Surprise Cinema starting at 8 p.m. where they'll show some unique or rare film ... something for the cinephiles out there — plus, it's free to Eastman House members. [source: Eastman House calendar]

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]

This evening at 8 p.m. in the Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) is another installment of Surprise Cinema where one of the curators gets to pick some piece of cinematic history that you'll likely not see elsewhere. [source: Eastman House calendar]

September 6

The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing The Great Train Robbery and the Origins of Cinema starting at 8 p.m. in this special show featuring Philip C. Carli playing live piano accompaniment. They'll also be showing Tom Tight et Dum Dum, A Trip Around the Pan-American Exposition, The Downward Path, Kit Carson, The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Blacksmith Scene. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages]

September 10

O'Bagelo's, 165 State Street, noon.

The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) will be hosting great, high-energy, classic-styled synth-rock band The Charms, very good fast rock from The Franks, and 1960's style rock from St. Phillip's Escalator starting around 10:45 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar]

Today and tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. is the The Clothesline Arts Festival at Memorial Art Gallery (500 University Ave., near Goodman St.) at The Memorial Art Gallery (500 University Ave., near Goodman St.). [source: Memorial Art Gallery calendar]

Tonight is the closing reception for Two Please, photographs by Scott Laird with a sound installation by Joe Tunis at A|V Art Sound Space (#8 in the Public Market, off N. Union St., formerly The All-Purpose Room.) [source: artsound website]

September 11

Ciara Lynn will be at The Montage Grille (50 Chestnut St.) starting around 7 p.m. [source: Montage e-mail]

Today through Tuesday is the Celebrating Our Erie Canal Heritage at Corn Hill Landing event at, well, the new Corn Hill Landing (Exchange Blvd.) with lots of free stuff and cheap boat rides. [source: City Hall press release]

The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing The Warriors starting at 8 p.m. The gangs of New York ... well, a different kind of gang, and a different kind of New York. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages]

September 12

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]

Tonight at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) is retro rock-and-roll band The Makers, punk-rock, hard-rock, and a little rockabilly from The UV Rays, and fun, gimmicky heavy metal band Blüdwülf starting around 9:30 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar] [18+]

September 13

The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing The Birth of a Nation starting at 8 p.m. Back in the "good" old days, you could make a movie where the KKK is the hero. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages]

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