Weekly Rochester Events #280: North by North Union St.

Thursday, May 20, 2004

Recently, they added a several neat features. The first is a personality test and matching system where you take a test and then they match you on people who might be compatible. It actually seems to work fairly well—highly-rated matches tend to have interesting descriptions. Likewise is the physical attraction test which comes in two parts: first, you rate how attractive you think other people are and second, you describe yourself. Then you can find out how attractive someone else is and/or if they might find you attractive. Again, the test is fairy accurate, and I find the good matches to be more attractive. The test is also fun because you can look at faces of other people and you get to assess whether or not you think they're attractive. The last feature which they've had for a while is "winks" where you can "wink" at someone and they'll get your wink.

I'm set up on all the tests and it's occasionally fun and/or depressing to find out who's out there. The funny thing, though, is that you can see your own profile. I found out that physically, not only am I not my type, but I'm not mine either. Personality wise, though, I would be an ideal match with myself.

I sent myself a wink, but I found out that I hadn't winked myself so I couldn't take the advice, "when you've winked at each other, you'll know it's time to strike up a conversation!"

In point of fact, I don't think I'm going to wink me back because I think I'm pretty creepy for winking in the first place.

Anyway, there were lots of goings-on going on that I wanted to mention ... even some that weren't. Last Thursday, the Camara Latina movie at Rochester Contemporary Art Gallery (137 East Ave.) was apparently called off—despite being mentioned on their website, the site was all locked up tight. I also tried to see Some Assembly Required at Johnny's Irish Pub (1382 Culver Rd., still smoke-free) but they apparently canceled when too few people showed up. Am I the only one who sees a problem of circular logic here?

On Friday I visited the new restaurant to Open Face (651 South Ave., right by the corner of Hickory) on South Avenue. (If you didn't notice, their URL can also be parsed as "Open Faces And Wich Eatery".com.) I got a Manhattan Special espresso soda and their "Personal Sandwich Tasting" where you get to try two halves of different sandwiches. I tried the closed-face roast beef with horseradish mustard and havarti cheese and the open-face albacore tuna. Everything was excellent. Maybe I'm just not "hip" enough as the kids say these days, but unless there's gravy involved, I'd rather have my sandwiches closed-face.

I also paid a visit to the The Lilac Festival that day and got my fried dough which indeed tasted very good and as I expected left behind its gut-punched aftermath of wringing my gall bladder dry. Aside from that what can I say?: it was the Lilac Festival. I guess it was impressively pleasant weather and the lilacs were impressively peaking all week.

On Saturday night I got to Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) to see Blue Spark and Flame and For The Mathematics. The former was cut off mid-set by the owner who arrived late and thought they had been playing too long. Any band would be pissed off, but these two get enraged. It was fucking awesome. Someone else who saw it remarked that it was a "punk rock moment." I mean, I haven't ever seen a band get cut off at the Krown before. It's quite an honor.

I felt kinda bad for For The Mathematics since they drove all the way from Ottawa and there were so few people there, what with the Diva Show, the Richmond's show that incorrectly listed The Blastoffs with The Retreads, the Patti Prom, and the rock-and-roll bands at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.)—most of the regular crowd was already accounted for. Regardless, they played a super-fast dynamic rock set ... plus, they're lively dancers/thrashers and, combined, probably ran a mile back-and-forth across that six-foot stage.

Monday night was what I'd call a "bad bicycle night." First, I got about five minutes out when the chain got wedged off the end of the sprocket so I had to go back home and take the wheel off to fix it. It was fine from then on and I went to The Bop Shop (274 N. Goodman St., in Village Gate Square) to see Kevin Norton's Living Language Ensemble who do good technical avant-garde music. I noticed that there's a point between perfect "planned chaos" and perfect "predictable melodies" which is not very engaging to me—these guys hit that "almost perfect planned chaos" point and I just wasn't very moved by the whole thing. To bracket the evening, on the way back home, I broke off the right pedal and had to ride the rest of the way on just one (that is, all the way up Goodman and up Pinetum to Reservoir in Highland Park (Reservoir Dr.))

Coming up this week, the way-coolest thing is That One Guy at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.). I saw him last year and he's the one I raved about playing a custom-built instrument made from drain pipe he calls his "magic pipe" tied to guitar strings and synthesizers. His music is a beat-charged experimental extravaganza. You'll want to see him play if you:

• like to see Dr. Seuss creations brought to life.
• love duct tape.
• want to see how to do the one-man-band thing right.
• have a thing for the user interfaces on Kai's Power Tools and want to see it built in real-life.
• love Rube Goldberg machines.
• like the look of plumbing in a demolished building.
• have always wanted to say, "I saw That 1 Guy and his magic pipe" without lying about it.

I'm taking a gamble on Transcendental Hayride because although they have an initially cool-sounding name, it smacks of stoned hippie groove-rock which I really can't stand. Their website looked good enough ... we'll see. Also, the Uforkestra show at Rochester Visual Studies Workshop (31 Prince St.) is another gamble because I'm not too sure it's really going to happen.

I will definitely be at the Heather Gardner performance of Three Voices for Joan La Barbara for the simple reason that I set up the light show for it. Hopefully I won't have any catastrophic failures. Although the piece is a bit long for my taste, it's interesting to hear what formally trained musicians do with the concept of overdubbing.

Naturally, I'm going to plug the Emerging Filmmakers show at The Little (240 East Ave.) which always has some interesting stuff. Likewise, the Big Drum shows are also an excellent deal because they're free and you can get some great food at Montage Grille (50 Chestnut St.) Finally, I think the Electronic Music Show at The All-Purpose Room (#8 in the Public Market, off N. Union St.) will be excellent as well—these kinds of shows are often more subdued (and quieter) than experimental or noise bands, so it's a good bet if you want to get your feet wet ... plus, it's for donations, so you can check it out on the cheap if you don't like it.