Ok, so O'Bagelo's (165 State Street) is closed this weekend for Memorial Day. Thus, as would have been tradition anyway — being the last Saturday of the month — I figure we should all pop over to Paola's Burrito Place (1921 South Ave., formerly Big Dog's Hots) for lunch. It constantly gets rave reviews for the best Mexican food in town. Oh, and for all of you who also did not take Spanish as your High School language either, I guess it's pronounced like "POW-la," and is the feminine form of Paolo ... if I recall correctly, the place is named after the owner's daughter.

This past week was pretty sparse for me ... I didn't get out much.

On Friday, I was talking with a friend at Lux Lounge (666 South Ave.) and it was unusually quiet, leading me to spawn the theory of "hipster swarms." The way I see it, people communicate in, more-or-less, three "modes." There's direct conscious communication like talking, direct subconscious communication like body language, and a third category of indirect subconscious communication — information that gets passed that isn't of use to either the recipient or the sender.

So, kind of like the way bees communicate where the honey is found (duh: in the hive) hipsters communicate where the party is at. As an example, I noted the guy outside unlocking his bike and said that maybe wearing a brown leather jacket and a red shirt means to "meet at Lux at 11:30." The rationale is that there seems to be certain nights when things are right for people to come out in droves ... er ... swarms and other nights, they all stay home. I theorize that it's some kind of indirect subconscious communication: somebody decides to wear a hat to work, and that causes someone else to decide to have spaghetti for dinner, and the smell makes somebody else wear a red shirt and brown leather jacket, and viola: nobody goes out until 11:30.

I swear: it's absolutely true.

Later I went to Betty Meyer's Bullwinkle Café (622 Lake Ave.) for the special show there (remember that they're ordinarily only open on Saturdays for Betty's Sing-Along.) Kelli caught me outside as I was locking up the bike and asked if I knew about sound systems ... it went something like, "Hey: do you know how to set up a sound system? Oh, yeah, and by the way, hi." So I was given a job right off the bat and ended up keeping an eye on the P.A. system all night. (I think I did a pretty good job, but the people in back might have wanted it louder.)

Anyway, Carbonic started things off with some good, very-low-key acoustic. It remained pretty interesting to me even though I thought it got kind of repetitive (particularly in style, what with being all somber.) Kelli Shay Hicks was up next and did her minimal acoustic guitar and airy vocals; finishing up with a couple tunes on the autoharp. Last was Jana Hunter who also does low-key acoustic ... I liked her stuff too. The way she sang reminded me of Joanna Newsom in a couple songs.

Speaking of being the "sound guy," I think the word "guy" is crossing gender boundaries a little. I mean, the phrase, "she's the sound guy" doesn't seem all that absurd to me. I find this interesting because it's been such a thorn in the equal-rights movement (you know: the one between men and women [did you hear disco's back too?]) to have words like "congressman" which gets translated to "congressperson" but what of "manhole cover?" While "understreet access" seems fine to me, some people just prefer the word "pants." [rim shot]

But really, I keep seeing stuff like that subtly changing. Sure, there's still lots of women who don't want to be "just one of the guys" but the word doesn't really mean "man" all that much anymore. I just like the idea of thwarting the "good-old-boy" networks just a little bit: the theory is that in such circles, men are inherently better at some jobs than women, but when enough women do sound engineering that "sound guy" becomes gender neutral, the underlying theory pretty much falls apart.

Oh yeah, but after the show, I went out and found that my tall bike had been used as a post for someone else to lock to. The trouble is that around Bullwinkle's there's the fencepost I used, and the next closest spot is the lamp post on the other side of Lake Avenue. Anyway, I noted that it was the same bike (and particularly the absurdly robust lock) that I locked up next to at Lux. I went in a bit frustrated, but realized I knew who the guy was: I went to the guy in the brown leather jacket and red shirt and asked if he'd unlock his bike. I guess that whole "hipster swarm" idea was just a red herring ... it was just a means for me to efficiently get my bike unlocked later in the evening.

On Saturday, I made it out to the Dryden at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) to see Raiders of the Lost Ark. I've been looking forward to this for a few weeks and although I got there early, the front-center seats were already taken by a group of die-hard fans. Anyway, costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis introduced the film and showed a clip from Secret of the Incas in which Charlton Heston plays Harry Steele, an archaeologist who wears a trademark leather jacket and wide-brimmed fedora, and this was the inspiration for Indiana Jones' costume. Her comments on costume design were insightful and rather obvious in retrospect: each costume defines the character, it's designed to exactly fit the actor, and its only function is to look good on screen.

I ordinarily don't like to tell other people's stories, but this one is amusing enough and tangentially related to me that I think I will. Before the movie, I got to chatting with the other people who were front-and-center. We noted a couple women show up in costume and someone recognized one of them as Katie Thomas (see her page at RebelLegion.com) who was featured in the The Gannett Rochester Insider the other week in her Princess Leia costume. One of the guys wanted to meet her so I loaned him my Sharpie and he got her to autograph his copy of the Insider. What happens now is out of my hands.

And for your final thought: keep an eye out for "Benign Girl" merchandise at The Rochester Public Market (280 Union St. N.) but beware of "Malignant Girl." Trust me on that one.

• Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (at The Little) - Interesting documentary about the Symbionese Liberation Army and their kidnapping of Patty Hearst in the early 1970's.
• Imaginary Heroes (at The Little) - Whaa? The American family isn't as pure and simple as it seems?
• Gong fu (Kung Fu Hustle, at The Little) - The Axe gang takes on the tenants of Pig Sty Alley ... watch out!
• The Longest Yard - Petty much the same thing as The Longest Yard only newer.
• Madagascar - A country on the Indian Ocean has been copyrighted by DreamWorks for all of perpetuity. Oh, and it's pretty much the same thing as all the other computer animated movies in the last 10 years.