Weekly Rochester Events #264: Sadist of Them All

Thursday, January 29, 2004

Another thing before I get rolling: allow me to bring you all to a bit of a downer for a second: February 1, 2003 was when Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart on re-entry. If you want to be all somber and well-informed, there's a great article titled Columbia's Last Flight in The Atlantic. [Yeah yeah ... it was written a few months ago. Quit yer bitchin'.]

Anyway...

It's been a long time since I bought commercial software, but I finally decided I needed a spreadsheet so I bought AppleWorks 6.2.7 from Amazon.com. So far it's worked adequately, but nothing spectacular ... it's pretty easy to get it to crash, but at a quarter the cost of Microsoft Office (and as best I can tell, without anything that sends information back to Apple about what I'm doing) it's, well, adequate. The real reason I bought it, though was that I went to CompUSA (400 Jefferson Rd.) to test drive it a bit since it's preinstalled on many of the Apple computers these days. Anyway, there was a file saved in the word processor titled "Love Letter." I opened it, and it said:

Thanks for firing me so now I can shop for computers in the MIDDLE of the day!

Love, Julie

I mean, how much more of an endorsement do you need?

Anyway ...

I almost forgot that I can now talk about the gift I got my brother last year for his birthday. Adam took a trip a couple years ago to Phoenix ... mostly on a whim, but it turns out it happened to be during the Phoenix Film Festival. He got a chance to see Jane White Is Sick and Twisted and meet the husband-and-wife producer-and-star team of David Latt and Kim Little.

I rented the movie at one point and it's worth checking out. It's essentially a road-trip story of a girl, Jane White, who was more-or-less entirely raised by television. The story is told from her world, and basically everyone in the movie is or was a TV star ... it's pretty funny, but if you watched a lot of TV in the last 20+ years, the cameos make it that much better. There's even a campy desert sequence in the movie which was expertly constructed to look like one from daytime television. Among the things in there is a plastic owl that appears several times all over the place.

I checked out the website, and among other things, they're auctioning off the props for the movie—and as of the middle of 2003, they were planning to auction off the owl.

I thought this would be a great gift ... I checked with Adam and asked if he had the DVD and he did, but that got him talking about the movie and he specifically mentioned the desert scene and the owl. Now I had to have it. I waited and waited, but they didn't put it up on eBay. As my brother's birthday approached in October, I sent an e-mail explaining my predicament and asking if they'd put the owl up ... they said they would put it up next.

Well, "next" came in the form of a "couple months later," but I can't fault them because they just had a kid (David and Kim.)

I kept telling Adam that his birthday gift would be "really cool ... I just can't get it yet." Finally, they put up the owl on eBay in December. I thought there would be tons of bidders, so I was expecting to pay a lot. My luck held out (at the expense of theirs) and nobody else bid on it, so I got it for cheap. They signed it for Adam and shipped it out.

I gift wrapped it without a box (with the paper snugly wrapped around the ears) and added a note to the card that he would probably guess what it was right away. I packed it in the box it came in and shipped it out. He called me as soon as he got it and asked if it really was the one from the movie—I don't think he's ever been that excited to get anything before.

That was friggn' awesome ... I'm glad he liked it so much.

Anyway...

On Wednesday I stopped by Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) for a bit of Open Mic Comedy. Unfortunatley, it's been somewhat ruined. See there's this one guy who shows up and his act is primarily his sex life—not so much humor as an opportunity to swear a lot on stage. The owner didn't really like all of this, so the solution was obvious: tell him he's got to clean things up. Ha ha ... not so fast, Slick. That would be a reasonable solution that would require backbone. Instead, they decided to make a new rule that people couldn't talk about sex. "Huh?" you say? That's right: they've created the paradox of "open" mic comedy where you can't talk about sex, the bread-and-butter of the comedy world (or perhaps "head-and-udder" for you Cockney fans). Yeesh.

On a whim, I was glad to have stopped by Starry Nites (696 University Ave., formerly Moonbeans) on Thursday and got treated to Dreamland Faces. They're great ... one of them plays an accordian, and the other a standard crosscut saw with a violin bow. Oh, and they sing, sometimes with a little megaphone. The whole experience sounds like the 1930's ... all the stuff is mechanical, by the way, and the saw remarkably approximates the sound of a Theremin. I guess they play there every Thursday so check them out if you get a chance.

On Saturday I finally got a chance to check out Curley's Saloon (511 E. Ridge Rd.). The place is pretty good ... this particular night it was quiet (except for the people to see the band) because of the weather. It's well lit, and they've got a good stage, but it's a bit out-of-the-way. Anyway, I caught a bit of Tom Foolery and the Shenanigans who do a good punk-rock style with a bit of fiddle thrown in to make them Irish. More exciting, though was that I got to work the sound board for both Burning Snella and FMGreen. Burning Snella, by the way, does an acoustic-compatible rock and also has a fiddler for a couple songs, and FMGreen is a punk-rock band with a grinding edge. Tim from Burning Snella was very happy with the sound, even though I'd changed a lot of the settings on his mixing board. It's good to know that I still have mad skills to make small bands sound good.

Tuesday found me out again (despite wanting to go see several things on Monday and simply forgetting to check until it was too late.) I got to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) to see the bands there, and I opted to bring my camera along to snap some pictures. First up was Keith Parkins who was doing some solo acoustic stuff written by a friend of his. Next was Sneaky Dragons although stripped down to just Otto Hauser this time. I was glad I brought the camera because (1) Sneaky Dragons' music puts me in a good state to take pictures, (2) I've always wanted to get pictures of Otto because he's got such an interesting stage presence, and (3) he sits really really still which is perfect for long exposures on a dark stage. Finally up was Kelli Hicks who I finally got to meet ... she does this airy, metaphoric acoustic solo stuff and is really quite good at it, even if she's a bit timid about the stage.

S A T U R D A Y

The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing 11'09"01 - September 11 starting at 8. You may remember September 11, 2001 ... if not, you can see 11 filmmakers interpret the day in short, eleven minute, nine second, and one frame segments. [source: Eastman House calendar] Richmond's (21 Richmond St.) will be hosting excellent rockabilly from Krypton 88, and instrumental surf-rock (with comedic intermissions) from The Isotopes starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: Whole Lotta Shakin' calendar] Excellent, tight hard rock from Low Ton, very good metal from Sulaco, and Bailey, Mason, Lickers will be at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10:45 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar] Over at Acme Bar & Pizza (495 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10 p.m. is Cerulean City. [source: JamBase calendar for Rochester] Decent groove rock (but with too much jamming) from Long Trip Johnny will be at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: Rochester Music Coalition calendar] Curley's Saloon (511 E. Ridge Rd.) will be hosting disco-and-more cover music from The United Booty Foundation starting around 10 p.m. [source: Freetime] Over at Alexander Street Pub (291 Alexander St.) starting around 10 p.m. is modern rock and covers from Uncle Plum. [source: Freetime] More modern rock and covers from Better Days will be at Millennium (2235 Empire Blvd.) starting around 10 p.m. [source: Freetime]

T U E S D A Y

The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Nina Simone: La légende about the legendary jazz and pop singer starting at 8 along with the short film James Baldwin: From Another Place. [source: Eastman House calendar] Tonight at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) is slower rock-based synth-pop (emo synth-pop, maybe?) from Healthcare, The Wills Wilde, Hi Vol. Components, and Brian Blatt starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar] Tonight at Verb Café at Writers and Books (740 University Ave.) is another Genesee Reading Series starting at 7:30 ... not much in the line of details this time. [source: Writers and Books calendar] How Safe is Rochester? The answer to that question in 40 minutes flat will be discussed during the 12:12 p.m. to 12:52 p.m. Tuesday Topics in Gleason Auditorium at The Rochester Public Library (115 South Ave.) Rochester Police Chief Robert Duffy and RIT Department of Criminology Professor John Klofas will present. [source: Rochester Public Library calendar] Drinks by Mary Dawn (535 S. Clinton) ... ever the staunch reminder of drunken nights passed ... will be hosting Bud, Booze & Bingo starting at 9 p.m. [source: Freetime] Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) is hosting an Acoustic Open Mic from 8 to 10. For this one, there's no microphones and it's pretty open ended. [source: Daily Perks calendar]

W E D N E S D A Y

Tonight from 8 to 10 is an Open-Mic Comedy Night at Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) While once it was a workshop type of environment, it's now more-or-less a regular open mic ... by default it's still a place to try out new stuff. [source: Daily Perks calendar] Very cool jazz/jazz-rock band Margaret Explosion will be at The Little (240 East Ave.) starting around 8 p.m. [source: Little Theatre e-mail]