Weekly Rochester Events #445: Destination: Uterus

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Last Thursday I headed to Boulder Coffee Co. (100 Alexander St.) to start the night off. I got their roast beef and bacon wrap which was quite good. I also came up with an idea that I wanted to try out: their menu lists smoothies by fruit flavors but I decided to order a banana-chocolate smoothie. Man, it was awesome. Like a banana split sundae, only in smoothie form. The barista commented later that it was a new flavor combination.

Afterward I headed to Monty's Korner (355 East Ave.) to visit with Drinking Liberally and three of us talked politics and mused at the increasingly elaborate, expensive, and skimpy clothing on the women as the evening turned to night. I said it was amusing that dating one of us [we all happened to be in relationships — but speculatively, Ali] would be considered by these women to be "dating down" because we weren't "classy" enough, but likewise that we probably wouldn't think we found a great catch in one of these Paris Hilton wannabes.

On Friday Ali and I got an excellent light dinner at Paola's Burrito Place (1921 South Ave., formerly Big Dog's Hots) before heading to her friend's annual Tiki Party. We had a nice time and were among the heterosexual minority. Likewise, on Saturday night we met up with Don and Scott at California Rollin' at Village Gate Square (274 N. Goodman St.) after the The Gay Pride Parade (Park Ave. and Brunswick St.) Ali liked a couple of the fully cooked, very warm tempura rolls with soy paper so we might be able to go together there once in a while. Anyway, the four of us headed to The Bachelor Forum (670 University Ave.) after that. We joked that it was hard to believe that all these men were bachelors. We shot some pool and then went to Lux Lounge (666 South Ave.) and did the same — Lux was completely dead, though, as it was only a bit after 9 on a Saturday night. Next we hit up Nasty D's (140 Alexander St., formerly RJ's) and Ali and Don did some dancing but I was getting tired and irritable so "not drunk enough to dance" Scott and I just lurked.

Sunday Ali and I headed to The Corn Hill Arts Festival (Frederick Douglass St. and Edinburgh St., in the Corn Hill Neighborhood) to get some food and walk around. We finally got to try ice cream from The Corn Hill Creamery (290 Exchange Blvd.) which was spectacular — and made locally ... or because it's made locally. Afterward I went to Ali's apartment for a great homemade dinner. On Monday we went to El Parian Mexican Grille (3070 W. Henrietta Rd.) for dinner — Ali's friend had raved about it. Although some parts of the meal really were exceptional, other aspects were just okay — and worst was the refrigerator/plastic tainted chile relleno. That's not to say it's a bad place, just a mixed bag — and overall, better than average.

After that we biked to The Corn Hill Creamery (290 Exchange Blvd.) for another taste of delicious ice cream and then did some exploring under the nearly complete Freddy-Sue Bridge — well, I guess officially it's now Frederick Douglass — Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge (formerly the Troup-Howell Bridge). In case anybody bothers to check as well, the center bearing on the west end was about parallel with its platform on the bottom with about a 3 5/8" gap.

Tuesday night I headed out to The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) to see The Pied Piper. I'm not hugely familiar with the Brothers Grimm story, only that a piper led all the rats out of a town then led the children as well. I liked that Donovan played the Piper with a charismatic flair. But aside from him, the story was pretty dark: particularly the ironically brightly-dressed government officials and clergy. Here, the government is presented as a highly corrupt institution spending any money it can to create a cathedral to protect itself from the plague. The Catholic church is presented as an uneducated lot who always favor a Holy explanation to a rational one, and are quick to condemn those who stand in the way of their power through illogical obfuscation. You know — kinda like reality. I was surprised, though, that the lazy Communism of the 1960's was shunned, instead favoring individuals who tried to earn their keep.

Afterward I went to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) to check out the bands there. [Imagine that: me going to see live music!] First up was The End Of The World who did a great set of down-tempo lounge-rock with elements of surf-rock. Similarly, The Subjects were a good up-tempo lounge-rock band. I also stayed for a few songs of Knife Crazy who did awesome chaos rock, power-rock, and power-jam all at once. To clarify, I conjured the term "lounge-rock" to differentiate it from "bar-rock". In both, it's a crowd-pleasing experience, but with bar-rock, the structures are more predictable as from the country roots of rock. By lounge-rock, I'm referring to music that's just a bit more complex without being particularly obscure.