Last Thursday was the big "graduation show" for the improv class. Initially seven people of the 20-person class showed up and two more arrived late to The Drama House at The University of Rochester (Fraternity Rd. at Alumni Rd., east corner of the Fraternity Quad, details on River Campus Map.) For the most part, the trouble was that it was announced 3 days prior, and some people didn't even check e-mail in that time. The audience wasn't much different. Two of the members of Geva Comedy Improv showed up and then 4 more people came later.

Nonetheless, the show was a lot of fun to do. We split up into two "teams" for the Geva flavor of "TheaterSports." I was on the "Assault Hamsters" team and I wish I could remember the other team name ... something like "Chinese-Flower-Process: Grass." In the first half, each team did 3 sketches and, since we only knew a few more sketches, we opted to do two each in the second half starting and ending with sketches that worked better with more people (so both teams were involved.) Overall I think the audience was amused. When I was performing, it felt like it was even better, but of course I couldn't watch myself. In the end, the Geva folks (including Adam Litz who taught the class) said it was quite entertaining.

Friday I stopped by Image City Photography Gallery (722 University Ave.) to see the show Coast to Coast by Gary Thompson and Phyllis Thompson. I was disappointed that it was a bit too much like tourist photography, and many of the pictures were further undesirable from poor quality reproduction. Work by the many guest photographers was mixed but often quite good.

From there I headed to Kilbourn Hall at Eastman Theatre (60 Gibbs St.) to see The Eastman Musica Nova Ensemble perform. The first piece was Edgard Varèse's Octandre which was pretty neat considering the bass was really the only low-end instrument against oboes, clarinets, and trumpets — almost like a debate. Conductor Brad Lubman had a moment as the stage was reset and explained that although the piece is 80 years old (1923) it was included because the ideas of the composer reflected his desire to create electronic music and the exact sound could not be realized then. Next was Annie Gosfield's Wild Pitch which I also liked: it gave the impression of working in a manic state — it was frenetic then briefly calm then frenetic again. She joined the rest of the performers for her Manufacture of Tangled Ivory. It was amazingly cacophanous and industrial; Gosfield was using detuned piano samples as a basis and it really worked.

After intermission was an addition to the program: Steve Reich's Piano Phase which reminded me of driving in a snowstorm and the hypnotic trance that ensues. In the piece, two pianos play related short verses over and over until the sound becomes such that there are zero pianos left.

Closing the show was was Steve Reich's Eight Lines which required 14 performers and was a similarly harmonic piece. It probably would have sounded great except it was ruined by the use of electronic amplification that completely removed my ability to aurally place the instruments. They had each of the instruments miked as is common in rock-and-roll shows and then played them through [what appeared to be recently installed] speakers over the exit doors. The worst were the flutes which were placed on the left side of the stage but came through brash and distorted out the right speaker. At least now I can say that The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) sounds almost as good as Kilbourn Hall ... and not so much because the Bug Jar did anything different.

Saturday night I went to Cathay Pagoda (488 East Main St.) for the first time in ten years. This time it was for a couple friends' birthdays. It's the ultimate Chinese-dive-bar — the food is thoroughly Americanized and deep fried as much as possible. The front restaurant/bar area is pretty normal, but it's the back "private" booths that are the big draw. It seemed that there was almost nothing that was not allowed in the back rooms. Hypothetically, of course ... I mean, nothing actually happened that could be considered rude, illegal, or lascivious.

Plus they sell "Scorpion Bowls" which appear to be a fruity ice mix placed in a decent-sized ornamental soup bowl with — as best as I could tell — all the clear liquor from the bar added in. It suggestively comes with two straws.

Monday I headed to The Community Darkroom at The Genesee Center for the Arts (713 Monroe Ave.) for the opening of the Spirit Stands Still but there was no opening. I would guess it was on January 13 when the show started but somebody didn't enter it right. This is the second time an event was incorrectly listed on their calendar. Anyway, I did get to go see the exhibition. I particularly liked the technique Betsy Phillips used when she printed her photographic textural images onto canvas.

Anyway, from there I went to A|V Art Sound Space (N. Union St. at Trinidad St., #8 in the Public Market, formerly the All-Purpose Room) and had to wait a while until the excruciatingly long sound check was completed (even though the bodies of the audience ended up changing the character of the room a lot.) First up was Carbonic who did good acoustic solo work — I thought he was less dour than I remember, but I still wasn't that into his sound. The headlining band was Espers who played like a mellow, well-orchestrated, 6-piece acoustic-folk/rock band from the late 1960's. It sounded very good although a bit too precise at times (if that can even be considered a negative thing.)

Tuesday I had a little sushi and a cheap beer at California Rollin' at Village Gate Square (274 N. Goodman St.) and watched The Adam Caine Trio play by The Bop Shop (274 N. Goodman St., in Village Gate Square) I thought they were pretty cool ... sometimes wildly cacophonous and sometimes subtly chaotic, but it unfortunately also smacked of ego-driven showmanship.

I'll call it a wrap there — despite my best efforts to get ahead of the game, it's always late Wednesday night that I'm banging this out.

• Manderlay (at The Little) - A plantation in the deep south hides unemancipated until 1933.
• Ceský sen (Czech Dream) (at The Little) - Funny and tension-building social essay about how capitalism has taken hold in Czechoslovakia.
• Why We Fight (at The Little) - America: the gigantic war machine.