Weekly Rochester Events #409: The Power of Barbarians

Thursday, November 9, 2006

On Thursday last week, a friend of mine posted to our college-friends mailing list and said he and his wife didn't want to celebrate Christmas with traditional gifts. Rather, they would like to see things homemade or have donations made in their honor. Someone else quipped that they'd like to make something but their experience with vacuum systems would relegate their gift to something like a light-bulb. In a flurry of ideas, I quickly thought about making a home made LED light to replace household lights, but then I thought about how cool it would be if people just bought them for me, then I thought "eco-gifts."

It sounds good to me: I mean, my biggest annoyance with the consumer-frenzied holidays is that products are purchased only considering their outside appearance. I'd feel better about giving and receiving if gifts were socially responsible and ecologically neutral. Gifts have often seemed "dirty" to me if they were made by child slaves in China, even if they're really cool. That, or if they are made by child slaves, at least they could be made from organic materials, or have something to do with reduced energy usage or renewable energy.

I guess I'd think it would be really cool to get a solar panel system with a grid-tie controller — although it would be cost-prohibitive for almost everyone I know. The geek in me admires the LED lights with 50-year life-spans and 1-watt power consumption. I've been tinkering with building my own using those super-bright LED's, but it would be, well, just easier to get one as a gift.

But the other suggestion of making a donation seems pretty neat. Everyone is a bit different, and your mom might not be too keen on a donation in her name to the Pro-Gay-Marriage Consortium. However, the idea of finding common ground — a charity which you think is good and who you think the recipient would like — is a really nice way to connect. In my opinion, that's what make giving worthwhile.

Anyway, on Thursday night, Ali and I went to George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) to check out the films there. The animal-centric short films were okay ... as either an exploration of the subject or as cinematic art, I thought they fared just okay. The feature, Chats perchés (The Case of the Grinning Cat) was more about the social climate in France than about the graffiti Cheshire cat icons dotted through the cities. Well, I guess it was about the cats, but there was a lot of time spent giving context to the events in which the cats appeared. It definitely had a French dry wit to it — so dry it turned some people off (and at least two people asleep) — although overall I liked it quite a bit. I had to stretch some to remember the French electoral system and their system of government, but it was okay because I didn't have to think very much.

I went out later to Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) to see a couple bands there. First was Diane and the Shell who were this 3-piece from Italy. They're mathy, but really captivating instrumental rock. Local chaotic rockers Gaylord sounded really good — I really liked their set list tonight.

Friday night I went to A|V Art Sound Space (N. Union St. at Trinidad St., #8 in the Public Market, formerly the All-Purpose Room) but, as usual, things didn't start at the time they say they started. I left and came back an hour later and things were picking up. First was The Clan of the Cave Bear which was a thrashy, staccato drum and guitar duo ... I liked them quite a bit. Blktygr did an amazingly good-sounding hybrid of looped guitar, distorted keyboards, drums, and spoken-word approaching bluesy vocals. Finishing up the night was Donna Parker who sounded almost exactly like I read she'd sound like: she does effects-pedal-driven feedback-noise with a peculiarly notable feminine edge. It was a good show all around.

Saturday night I went to George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) to see Next Stop, Greenwich Village. Actor and filmmaker Paul Mazursky was on hand to introduce his semi-autobiographical account of moving to Greenwich Village in the 1950's. I liked the film a lot ... it had a warm, friendly tone. As an added bonus, Paul Mazursky seemed like a really swell guy in the question-and-answer. I met up with Ali at A|V Art Sound Space (N. Union St. at Trinidad St., #8 in the Public Market, formerly the All-Purpose Room) later and missed most of the bands, but The Lobster Quadrille put on a great show.

Sunday evening Ali and I got a chance to see a sneak-preview of Matt Ehlers' new film, Smoking Laws. It was really quite funny — a bit challenging to introduce the many characters, but for being vignette-based, it really worked. I even got to see myself as an extra. I'd like to see some more work done, but otherwise I think it'll be a reasonably successful and popular film.

Tuesday was election day and I got in my vote. I spent a while going through all the candidates on the ballot and figuring out their platform. I voted across party lines, and I tended to favor voting for candidates on multiple parties by selecting their alternatives — particularly if they were Libertarian or Working Families. Anyway, as it all shook out, I guess there's now a Democratic majority in Congress, although I doubt much will really change.

Anyway, I've got a lot of things going on ... check the schedule for The High Falls Film Festival stuff and I'll probably see you out at some of it.

Next, in the 9 p.m. timeslot, I'm interested in:

• Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst at The Little (240 East Ave.) at 9 p.m. which is a documentary about a socialite designer and artist from Australia.
• Shoot the Messenger, also at the Little, at 9:20 p.m. in which a middle-class black Londoner loses his teaching job and begins a downward spiral of blaming other blacks for the problems in his life.
• Shab Bekheir Farmandeh (Good Bye Life) will also be at the Little, at 9:30 p.m. It follows an Iranian photojournalist who goes to a Middle Eastern war-zone essentially to commit suicide.
• Deliver Us From Evil will be showing in the Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) at 9:30 p.m. followed by a Q&A with Amy Berg. The film is a documentary about a Northern California priest who exploited children and what happened to those children (and him) in that 20-year period.