Author Archives: Jason Olshefsky

It's So Hard to Switch Internet Providers

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So today I'm going through the painful process of switching to Earthlink. I currently have Time Warner Road Runner but at $50/month, it's way too expensive, especially since Earthlink offers a slower-speed (768 kbps) service for $30/month.

So I signed up for Earthlink. I got a call for an installation and was told to disconnect Time Warner Road Runner by returning the modem. Okay … so I did that. I called the installation number back again and was told that my account was active until the 28th. O-kay … So I called Time Warner Road Runner back and they said it was already disconnected. Further, they — all of a sudden — offer a $25/month service for the same speed as Earthlink. O-fucking-kay … I wish they bothered to have that as an option on their website. Then again, Time Warner is such a slimebag company, I would rather spend $5 more a month than deal with them. As if I can actually not deal with them because they provide the cable. I called the installer back and they said the system takes 24 hours to update so I'll have to schedule an installation tomorrow. Fucking great!

Thank goodness I was smart enough to sign up for Budget Dial-Up so I can actually still get to the Internet.

Painted House Pictures

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After living with peeling paint for most of the 11 years I've lived in my house, I finally got it repainted. I used financial and planning assistance from NeighborWorks Rochester (570 South Ave.) and went with Trinity Home Renovations, Inc.. Everything worked out great and they wrapped things up last week. I finally got out for some pictures. The older one is not a good photograph, so the difference is exaggerated, but not by much.

Jayces house as of May 5, 2009.

Jayce's house as of May 5, 2009.

Jayces house as of June 6, 2009

Jayce's house as of June 22, 2009.

The ReSassy Project

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A few weeks ago I announced that I was going to take my Civic apart and sell the pieces. Well, this weekend I got the website up and running and decided to call the project ReSassy which construes the goal of reusing, repurposing, and recycling as much as possible. Plus it fits my criterion of "specifically avoiding things that mention 'Honda' or 'Civic' in the title".

The Lobster Quadrille and Daryl Fleming and the Public Domain at the Bug Jar

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Ali was really sad she couldn't make it, but Christina and I forged on to The Bug JarMySpace link (219 Monroe Ave.) to see The Lobster QuadrilleMySpace link play. Opening up was Daryl Fleming and the Public DomainMySpace link who did a fine job. They spun some lyrical, interesting, groove-rock-ish country/folk/rock … if that's any help at all. The Lobster QuadrilleMySpace link really did a great job too. They brought their Gothic satirical gospel back to the Bug Jar, and even had a bunch of toy instruments so the audience could join in too. Their new CD is — like many bands CD's — an idealized studio form of their live work, but it gives us fans a chance to learn all the words.

Running the Fight Against Violence 5K Run/Walk with Ali

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Ali and I went to The Stay Bridge Suites (1000 Genesee St.) to participate in the Fight Against Violence 5K Run/Walk. There was a good turn-out — I guess quite a bit more than the organizers had anticipated. The race headed south along the River Walk through Genesee Valley Park (Hawthorn Dr.) then back through The University of Rochester (Elmwood Ave. at Intercampus Dr.) and finally returning to the hotel. I joked that if it were closer to the heart of the 19th Ward, far fewer white people would have showed up.

Anyway, Ali ran it in 36:11 and won 2nd place for her age/gender category out of 6 other runners. There were 6 men in my category but I came in 4th among them with my time of 29:54. It's "officially" listed as 9:39/mile on the PCR Timing site which surprised me because that's slower than my 9:33 pace at The Medved Lilac 10K and 5K Family Fun Run [and this time, I think I was the only person running without shoes … people sure seem to like buying those over-the-counter orthopedics]. According to USA Track & Field (USATF), the course is actually 5.20 km or 3.23 miles, so my per-minute time based on that is 9:11.

I was a little disappointed that the promise of a gift bag from UofR and other post-race items were not available, but I can't fault them too much because the turnout was so high they didn't even have enough shirts for everyone. But you know, it doesn't really matter because we had a great time.

Seeing David Byrne and Ani DiFranco with Ali

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Ali and I headed to The Constellation Brands Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center (CMAC) (Lincoln Hill Dr., Canandaigua) to see David Byrne and Ani DiFranco. She bought me the tickets for our anniversary last month and I gotta say, I had a great time. Oh yeah, and we saved the $10 on parking because Ali has friends who live about a quarter mile from CMAC and they let us park there. That savings paid for all of about 1 beer, though.

Anyway, Ani DiFranco — although I don't seek out her work — was very good. I imagine she's incredible to see in a small venue, but it's terribly difficult to pull off that kind of personal connection among a thousand people. Since I'm not all that familiar with her, I wasn't nearly as excited or interested.

David Byrne, however, has been consistently great in my book. I liked his PowerPoint-based art in Trees, Tombstones, & Bullet Points when I saw him present it in October, 2004 and I've enjoyed what he's done with music. In this show, he didn't use as much multimedia as I'd seen before, but all the performers were dressed in white and changed appearance considerable with the use of stage lighting and the lighting on the back curtains.

I'll be sure to look for the new album because it has the power and pop-rock feel of old Talking Heads stuff while still feeling current (as if old Talking Heads heard by fresh ears doesn't sound modern enough). We were about to leave after the second encore, but he and his band were coerced into a third encore so Ali and I headed to the front row. The security guards eventually even let the stairways fill up with people.

Overall it was a blast and I had a great time. Thanks, Ali!

The Enablers at Monty's Krown

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It's been a while, but I got back to Monty's KrownMySpace link (875 Monroe Ave.) to catch The EnablersMySpace link. It was fun to get back to the old haunt, and the band didn't disappoint. They play a strong mix of punk and rock, although at this point it's mostly cover songs. Their originals were solid and the mix of music … I mean — wow — who plays the Hollies?

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on them … even if they do change their name. [In my opinion, The Enablers is a fine name, but at the request of the lead singer, I added my favorite fake band name to their list of possibilities: Fist the Bride even though it was destined for a fake metal band.]

Running the Lilac 5K with Ali

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If you recall, I've been doing some running to work up to the 5 kilometer race in The Medved Lilac 10K and 5K Family Fun Run which was today.

I ran a "long" 5K run on Monday and Tuesday, then a "short" 2 mile run on Wednesday, and another "long" 5K run on Thursday [hmm … like a train whistle warning a crossing] before resting up for the race. Well, I did it. And yeah: barefoot. And I even beat 30 minutes, finishing in 29:35 according to the PCR Timing Official Results for this years race (which placed me 397 of 864 overall and 21st among the 31 male 35-39 year-olds). This is great because I beat my 35:58 official time for the Corporate Challenge in 2001.

Ali ran too and, despite admitting not training enough, ran for the whole race and finished in 37:31.

But the remarkable serendipity of our runner numbers was the amusement of the day. We were each given random numbers and she got #123 and I got #321. The odds that I would get the same digits as her number in the reverse order was (given 864 runners) about 1 in 863. If you figure on the specific combination of 123 and 321, that's something like 1 in 745,632. Pretty neat.

To Live at the Dryden

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I went to the Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) with my friend Christina to see Huozhe (To Live). She had seen it before (at least the latter 75%) and liked a lot.

It was one of the most beautiful, serene movies I've ever seen. It's about a family that stays together through record-setting turmoil. Or it's about redemption. Or it's about life being change. Or it's a critique of communism. Or it's about luck. Or it's about beauty all the time. Or any combination or all of those things.

But if you're willing to be receptive to it, you'll feel some of those ideas.

Jon Moses et al at Boulder

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I headed to Boulder Coffee Co.MySpace link (100 Alexander St.) to check out the bands. To be honest, I didn't like any who opened up but the night was redeemed when Jon Moses brought up members of each band and included them in his wild acoustic improvisation.

I got a little melancholic listening to the first bands (and I'm not going to mention them by name because it just isn't worth it; in fact, half the problem was nobody operating the mixing board, and I was too mopey in my melancholy to bother to step up and do it). After having gone out to see bands so often for so long, it all seems to blur together at times. I mean, obviously everyone there had originality to add to the human musical vernacular, but it was all derivative (as it has been in almost every case forever), and all trying to be something — trying to be some direct affectation on sound … scripted … logical.

When Jon Moses played, though, his songs were absurdly simple: repetitions of barely 3 chords on guitar and often with just a single sentence of lyrics. That was just the foundation, though. The real show was in the spontaneous improvisation. It was not scripted, and even though that form of improvisation has been done some uncountable number of times before, it was exciting. Because by not being scripted, no body knew what was going to be the result — very different from even one person knowing. It was dangerous. And it worked.