Weekly Rochester Events #334: Royal Island

Thursday, June 2, 2005

This week I've been maniacally busy. I took on too much and, while it's not quite too big a bite to chew, I'm gagging pretty badly. I need to finish things up and be ready to set up everything for the The Upper Mount Hope Neighborhood Association garage sale: over 50 households are having sales in my area this weekend, and I promised to put up signs and set up advertising. I'm also trying to get The Bike With 2 Brains painted in the next week to be ready for the ARTWalk (University Ave. from Atlantic to Merriman) Muse-A-Thon on June 11. I need to finish welding everything that needs to be welded, and while I still don't have a seat nor a windmill, I need to remember to add mounting points for them. Also, I'm trying to make enough time to put in some work on The Rochester Outdoor Museum of Art (ROMA) as well since I promised to do that too.

I did get out a bit ... on Saturday I made it to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) to see the show there. I just caught the tail end of Baba Yaga but I got to see Stinking Lizaveta put on an excellent show — they do this chaotic culmination of rock-and-roll, and I got in my head that it had a Frank Zappa feel to it, yet I'm not familiar enough with Zappa to qualify it that way — given the state of journalism today, I feel free to make such a statement anyway. Next was Gaylord who did their great "A.D.D. rock," playing chunks of songs then switching to a tangentially related structure and back. Finishing off the night, Dixie Witch delivered their metal-edged power-rock-and-roll.

Then on Monday, I was off to The Little (240 East Ave.) to see the latest in the Emerging Filmmakers Series of New York State filmmakers. There were two spectacular films among them.

Where the Girls Are by Jennifer Arnold and Tricia Cooke was a great documentary on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tournament formerly known as the Dinah Shore Weekend. In some senses, it's "spring break for lesbians." Women golfers (irrelevant of sexual preference) go to Palm Springs, Florida to play in the tournament, but it has become a haven for lesbians. I think the film gives both opponents and supporters of the surrogate culture fair time, but given my biases, the interviewees (primarily residents of Palm Springs) who are against homosexuality came off sounding like bigoted rubes.

The other film was Kill Your Darlings by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Maximilla Lukacs which is this spectacular treatise on love which explores romantic relationships from beginning to end. It starts from the basis that everyone has this idealistic view of what the perfect relationship is like, and then it goes on to compare that to reality. The film, according to the website, "draws in spirit and aesthetic from experimental silent films and the Czech New Wave."

Aside from that, I didn't have too much time to get to doing very much. However, I did find time to derive this simple formula for the betterment of the world:

It's "The Police Academy Equation" that converts an Internet Movie Database movie rating (from 1 to 10) into an estimate of the sequel to Police Academy that got that rating. See, I noticed long ago that each successive sequel to Police Academy is rated by users to be lower than the last.

As of May 31, 2005, the data in the Internet Movie Database concerning the Police Academy movies is as follows:

I was looking for a function to convert from a given IMDb rating to provide the Police Academy sequel number, and just looking at the data I figured it was some form of exponential function. I took a guess at a structure and punched in numbers until it looked right:

Graph of Police Academy sequels and their ratings

The key information about this approximation is as follows:

• Aside from Police Academy 6: City Under Siege (1989), all the resulting sequel numbers are within 8% of their true values and therefore round-off to the right sequel number.
• According to the estimation function, Police Academy 6: City Under Siege (1989) should have received a 2.5 but its rating is actually 2.8. 4,381 people not only admitted to seeing the film but actually rated it on Internet Movie Database. 8 out of 9 of the "Females under 18" provided a rating of 8 or better; the other one gave it a 4, and aside from that, it's unclear why the rating is unusually high. Steve Guttenberg may be a factor, but he left after Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987). Perhaps his spirit haunted Police Academy 5: Assignment: Miami Beach (1988).
• It is anticipated that "Police Academy 12.6" would get a perfect 1. "Police Academy 12" would get a 1.1.
• An input rating of 10 yields a sequel number of 0.047: "Police Academy 0" is a 10.
• Gigli, with a rating of 2.3, is equivalent to "Police Academy 6.6."
• Glitter, with a rating of 2.1, is equivalent to "Police Academy 7.4."
• 'Manos' the Hands of Fate, IMDb's "worst rated film" (with a rating of 1.6) is equivalent to "Police Academy 9.4."

T H U R S D A Y

Today from 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. is a concert at The First Universalist Church of Rochester (150 South Clinton Ave.) titled Brazil, Guitar and Friends featuring guitarist Petar Kodzas, flutist Sophia Gibbs Kim, and pianist Ines Draskovic. [source: University of Rochester Events Calendar] [all ages] Tonight starting at 7 p.m. is The JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge ... this year at RIT (One Lomb Memorial Dr., campus map). [source: RIT Events Calendar site] Starry Nites Café (696 University Ave., formerly Moonbeans) will be hosting Lewis and Keller starting around 8 p.m. [source: Starry Nites calendar] [all ages] Mark Gregory, and Julie Ketchum will be at Park and Berkeley St. (online map) starting around 6:30 p.m. [source: Freetime] [all ages] Today, tomorrow, and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and on Sunday from noon to 11 p.m. at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church (962 East Ave.) is The Rochester Greek Festival starting around 11 a.m. [source: Freetime] [all ages] Today at 5:30 p.m. at The Memorial Art Gallery (500 University Ave., near Goodman St.) is a discussion of Interior of a Mosque, a painting by 19th-century French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme, by Susan Dodge-Peters Daiss. [source: Memorial Art Gallery calendar] [all ages] Pure Kona Poetry Open Mic Night is at Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) tonight starting at 7:30. [source: Daily Perks calendar] [all ages]

F R I D A Y

Today from 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. The Landmark Society of Western New York (133 S. Fitzhugh St.) is having a free tour of The Powers Building (16 West Main St.) [source: Landmark Society calendar] Rochester Hamfest at the The Dome Center (E. Henrietta Rd. and Calkins Rd.) runs today from noon to 5:30 p.m., tomorrow from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and on Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. [source: Freetime] Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) will be hosting The Nazareth Jazz Combo starting around 8 p.m. [source: Daily Perks calendar] [all ages] The California Brew Haus (402 West Ridge Rd.) will be hosting The Invictas starting around 8 p.m. [source: Whole Lotta Shakin' calendar] All this weekend is the The Upper Mount Hope Neighborhood Association Garage Sale ... over 50 individual sales in the area. Stop by Mt. Hope Plaza (1600's Mount Hope Ave.) and get a map on Saturday. [source: Upper Mount Hope Neighborhood Association flyer] Updated: Great singer Maria Gillard and her band will be at The Clarissa Room (293 Clarissa St., formerly Shep's Paradise) tonight starting around 8 or so. [source: band e-mail] Tonight at The Montage Grille (50 Chestnut St.) is Rochester Brass and Electric starting around 10 p.m. ... I think. It's all part of the East End Fest, so if you really want to see them, dig around a bit more. [source: Montage calendar] Tonight at Johnny's Irish Pub (1382 Culver Rd., still smoke-free) is Ciara Lynn starting around 9 p.m. [source: Johnny's Irish Pub calendar] Over at Starry Nites Café (696 University Ave., formerly Moonbeans) starting around 9 p.m. is Joshua Price. [source: Starry Nites calendar] [all ages] Six Pockets (Ridge Hudson Plaza) will be hosting very good bluegrass from The String Theory Bluegrass Band starting around 9:30 p.m. [source: Freetime] The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Ali G Indahouse starting at 8 p.m. Political satire about a guy who fakes being a famous rapper. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages]

S A T U R D A Y

O'Bagelo's, 165 State Street, noon. Aberdeen Square Park (Aberdeen St., between Post and Woodbine) is the central site of The 19th Ward Square Fair featuring The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Woodwind Quintet starting around 1 p.m. [source: City Hall press release] Today and tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. is the opening of the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Exhibit with Mr. McFeely. [source: Freetime] [all ages] Today at The Rochester Public Market (280 Union St. N.) from 10 a.m. to noon is another Chef's Day event. [source: City Hall press release] From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today and again tomorrow from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at The Rochester Public Market (280 Union St. N.) is part of the Market Centennial Celebration. [source: City Hall press release] Today and tomorrow at Seabreeze Amusement Park (4600 Culver Rd.) is Hochstein Days featuring The Hochstein School of Music and Dance (50 North Plymouth Ave.) student performances. [source: Hochstein calendar] Tonight at Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) is The Steve Greene Trio starting around 8 p.m. [source: Daily Perks calendar] [all ages] Updated: Publick Musick will be hosting a The Lutheran Masses in A Major and F Major by J.S. Bach featuring all baroque instruments by performers from around the world at The Downtown United Presbyterian Church (121 N. Fitzhugh St N.) starting at 8 p.m. [source: band poster] Do Me: The Art of Getting Off closes today at A|V Art Sound Space (#8 in the Public Market, off N. Union St., formerly The All-Purpose Room.) [source: artsound website] Tonight at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) is great high-energy rock-and-roll from Bee Eater, and complex, hard-hitting, mid-tempo rock from Kill Myself on Monday starting around 10:30 p.m. However, Freetime Magazine lists Those Rusty Strings to be playing ... once again, confusion reigns. [source: band e-mail] The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) will be hosting really good country-rock/rockabilly from Angry Johnny and the Killbillies, local rock legends Eddie Nebula and the Plague, and really good punchy punk-rock from 5 Watt Bulb starting around 10:45 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar] The Montage Grille (50 Chestnut St.) will be hosting Ron Spencer and the Jumpstarts starting around 10 p.m. [source: Montage calendar] Johnny's Irish Pub (1382 Culver Rd., still smoke-free) will be hosting Fishbone Soup starting around 9 p.m. [source: Johnny's Irish Pub calendar] Mike McNeill Jazz Quartet will be at Starry Nites Café (696 University Ave., formerly Moonbeans) starting around 9 p.m. [source: Starry Nites calendar] [all ages]

S U N D A Y

Over at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) starting around 8 p.m. is The Demolition Dollrods, and punchy rock-and-roll from Blue Spark and Flame. [source: Bug Jar calendar] [18+] Over at The Montage Grille (50 Chestnut St.) probably starting early around 7 p.m. is The Rebel's Posse. [source: Montage calendar] Today is the last day to see Play Off featuring works from Stephanie Ashenfelder and Holly Greenberg at The Rochester Contemporary Art Gallery (137 East Ave.) [source: Rochester Contemporary e-mail] The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie starting at 8 p.m. Luis Buñuel's film about how people just can't seem to find time for one another. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages] Starry Nites Café (696 University Ave., formerly Moonbeans) is hosting their weekly Open Mike Poetry tonight at 7 p.m. [source: Starry Nites calendar] [all ages]

M O N D A Y

The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be having another installment of Surprise Cinema starting at 8 p.m. where they'll show some unique or rare film ... something for the cinephiles out there — plus, it's free to Eastman House members. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages]

T U E S D A Y

Tonight is another Tuesday Nature Nights Guided Bike Ride from 6:15 p.m. to 8 p.m. of the Southwest Neighborhood starting at The Genesee Waterways Center (149 Elmwood Ave., in Genesee Valley Park.) [source: City Hall press release] The Spunks, and really good punk-rock from The Emersons will be at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10:45 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar] [18+] 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] [all ages]

W E D N E S D A Y

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] [all ages] Tonight at The Club at Water Street (204 N. Water St.) is another Open Mic Wenzdaze with Acoustic Café from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and then Rock-n-Roll Circus starting at 9 p.m. [source: Water Street calendar]