Weekly Rochester Events #286: That's an Old Sandwich

Thursday, July 1, 2004

I finally have some philosophical crap to spread around ... I was talking with a friend of mine about how I tend to live my life to impress my "future self." I hate the idea of looking back and finding a life wasted, so I kind-of live in fear of a judgmental future-self. While I don't think that'll be the case, I think I'll be happier later if I try and actually do lots of things now. It sort-of works, except that instead of living in the now, it seems I'm living in the tomorrow. Or the 25 years-from-now.

There is something valid about it, though. It seems so wrong to live in a goal-oriented way as is recommended to everyone these days (i.e. basically any seminar about getting your live in order or getting rich quick revolves around the goal-oriented approach.) Through high school and college, there's constant pressure to decide what you're going to do for the rest of your life—as if when you get out into the real world that you are stuck with that decision until you die. From the perspective of the age when you're creating goals it seems to be a valid solution: you set goals for yourself then attempt to reach those goals.

All this breaks down once you actually start living, though. First, you can get trapped trying to meet your goals—all difficulties are to be perceived as obstacles to overcome, whereas your time may be better served by avoiding an obstacle through changing your goals. Worse is that you're living life based on decisions you made in your past. Consider some situation or problem you face today: do you really think that your self ten years ago would have made a better decision than you would today?

Doesn't it then make sense to reevaluate your goals as often as you want? In other words, keep your goals in flux and alive, and constantly assess what you want to do with yourself in the future. As your goals change, adapt and head in a new direction. Every day you're smarter than the day before, so theoretically, who you are right now is always most qualified to make any changes.

Ok, so enough of that.

This past week was a mixed bag. I have largely been wrapped up in my own project related to the wedding: I'm editing the video footage and photographs from the bachelor party into a short film—nothing that most of you will see, so don't even bother asking. It is fun practice to use iMovie (well, the free version that came with the OS, anyway) and QuickTime with my Digital8 camera ... maybe someday I'll take money to do this kind of thing for other people.

I did get out a little bit, though. On Thursday I went to the Fleet Party in the Park at High Falls Festival Site (Browns Race and Commercial St.) and managed to stay for about a half-hour of The Commander Cody Band who do crowd-safe bluesy country-rock. It was also a "Hog Rally" and I was feeling like an outsider mingling with such a group of conformists. On Saturday, I was happy to get to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) to see Suran Song in Stag again with a new multimedia show ... still in the style of a politically-charged punk-rock band but with just bass, drums, and vocals. The Paybacks played afterward and they're a very good, standard, loud, rock-and-roll/punk-rock band. I guess I liked them but I had just heard their kind of music before.

Way ahead to this past Wednesday I made it back to open mic comedy at Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) and it was about as I remember it. Paris did a great job hosting and Rene Rose (whom I guess was new to open mic comedy ... at least at this stage) finished things off with a pretty funny routine.

In completely unrelated but otherwise cool news, there's this company/product called SawStop which I read about on Slashdot.org today. Basically they combined some existing technologies with some new ones to modify table saws so you can't cut your fingers off. It works by sensing when the blade touches the human body (like those touch-lamp dimmers) applying a brake and dropping the blade—all in 5 milliseconds. The videos are unbelievably impressive: basically you go from the possibility of losing several fingers to getting a modest cut on one finger. (They use a hot dog to demonstrate, leaving the worst of images to the masters at Rotten.com. You really don't want to click around on that site.)

T H U R S D A Y

Fleet Party in the Park will be at High Falls Festival Site (Browns Race and Commercial St.) tonight starting at 5:30 p.m. featuring modern rock and cover band Uncle Plum and Another Perfect World. [source: City Hall press release] At The Memorial Art Gallery (500 University Ave., near Goodman St.) today at 5:30 p.m. is gallery docent Thea Tweet on hand to speak about two 20th-century Chinese scrolls in the Asian Gallery. [source: Memorial Art Gallery calendar] Tonight at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) is rockabilly style transvestive band Temptress and probably some others starting around 9 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar] Rochester Community Players will be performing King Lear at Highland Bowl (South Ave. at Robinson Dr.) starting at 8 tonight (well, actually yesterday) and through Sunday, July 11 every evening at 8 (except for July 4 and July 8.) [source: the proverbial grapevine] Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) will be hosting Upsilon Acrux starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: WITR calendar] Pure Kona Poetry Open Mic Night is at Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) tonight starting at 7:30. [source: Daily Perks calendar] Over at Montage Grille (50 Chestnut St.) starting around 9 p.m. is Dave Rivello's 12-Piece Jazz Ensemble [source: Montage e-mail]

F R I D A Y

Tonight at 7 p.m. is Rhythm Nights at High Falls Festival Site (Browns Race and Commercial St.) with blues band Bernie Worrell and the WOO Warriors for free. [source: City Hall press release] Johnny's Irish Pub (1382 Culver Rd., still smoke-free) will be hosting acoustic solo cover band guy Todd East starting around 9:30 p.m. [source: Johnny's Irish Pub calendar] Over at The Club at Water Street (204 N. Water St.) starting around 9:30 p.m. is great funk-rock band Mountain Mojo Authority (click here to skip their annoying flash intro.) [source: Water Street calendar] Tonight at 8 p.m. at Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) is the Urban-Suburban Slam Poetry. [source: Daily Perks calendar] Tonight at Starry Nites (696 University Ave., formerly Moonbeans) is acoustic soloist Silandara Bartlett starting around 9 p.m. [source: Freetime]

S A T U R D A Y

Over at Mt. Hope Cemetery (North Gate, 791 Mt. Hope Ave.) is a Historic Walking Tour starting at 1 p.m. I mean, what other kind of walking tour would they have? [source: Freetime] Tonight and tomorrow is Rochester's Fourth of July Celebration. On both nights at 9:30 p.m. is a special laser show at The High Falls Gorge (Pont De Rennes Bridge) sponsored by TorontoHarbour.com and tomorrow night at 10 p.m. is the fireworks show downtown. [source: City Hall press release] Tonight is the last day to see Love in the Title by Hugh Leonard, directed by Barbara K. Biddy at Shipping Dock Theatre (31 Prince St., new location at Visual Studies Workshop) In it, a young woman takes a journey through her family history and beliefs via young personifications of her mother and grandmother. [source: Shipping Dock Theatre website] The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) will be hosting Gotham Road, metal band with a great stage presence, Blüdwülf, clean-sounding death metal band The Nocturnal, and The Double Negatives starting around 10:45 p.m. Quite good jazzy funk instrumental band Cerulean City will be at Acme Bar & Pizza (495 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10 p.m. [source: WBER calendar] Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) will be hosting excellent tight rock/punk-rock from The Retreads starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: Freetime]

S U N D A Y

Independence Day Open Mic Night at On the Rocks (1551 Mount Hope Ave., formerly Michael's and before that Trios.) [source: Freetime]

M O N D A Y

Modern rock cover band Uncle Plum will be at Pelican's Nest Restaurant (566 River St.) starting around 4:30 p.m. [source: Freetime] Tonight at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (99 Court St.) around 9:30 is an Open Blues Jam which could be interesting, depending on who shows up. [source: Dinosaur Bar-B-Que calendar] Excellent experimental jazz band TatYana will be playing tonight at Alexandria Mediterranean Cuisine (120 East Ave., formerly Aria) starting at 10. [source: the proverbial grapevine]

T U E S D A Y

Over at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10:45 p.m. is The Studdogs. [source: Bug Jar calendar] 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

Updated: Over at The All-Purpose Room (#8 in the Public Market, off N. Union St.) starting around 7 p.m. is 15 short films from Chicago video group Ice Capades, music from Leilani Swafford, and nearly ambient rock-and-roll from The Wills Wilde. [source: All-Purpose Room e-mail] Poor People United meets tonight and every Wednesday at 7 at St. Joseph's House of Hospitality (402 South Ave.) [source: the proverbial grapevine] 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]