Weekly Rochester Events #341: Remember Fort Orange?

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Last Thursday I got to see the "Director's Cut" of Donnie Darko which I gotta say is a much different movie than the original cinematic version which I saw last Sunday. In my opinion, the Director's Cut is far superior. It's a tense, suspensful movie that intertwines the fascade of moviegoing with the actuality of moviemaking in an expertly nuanced manner. The cinematic version on the other hand, is a classic horror-suspense film and is good in its own right.

Anyway, that night I headed to The High Falls Festival Site (Browns Race and Commercial St.) to see Eddie from Ohio primarily. Well, I missed the first band entirely and blundered around for a bit since I didn't — somehow — seem to know anybody there. I got some salt potatoes for a snack and sat down to eat and the band started. The weather didn't look like it would cooperate, and after three songs or so, they started playing "And the Rain Crashed Down" off their album This Is Me and their suggestion was answered.

I planned on rain so I followed my own "handy hint" and brought some zipper freezer bags to keep the electronic junk in my pockets (cell phone, Palm Pilot, etc.) dry. (Oh, and I had to gobble down the potatoes so the raindrops wouldn't splatter melted butter everywhere.) But myself and 30 or so other people stayed through the worst of the rain — there were little rivers flowing to the storm drains ... warmed by the hot concrete ... but rivers nonetheless. The band graced us with several a cappella songs since all the electronics on stage were pretty much soaked (despite the canopy.)

After 45 minutes of rain, there was still no official word on calling off the concert so I headed out and got some dry clothes on. Unfortunately I didn't get a good feel for the band, although they get big points for coming out in the rain to sing a cappella. I went to Milestones (170 East Ave.) of all places to see the The Comedy Block Party but it was cancelled: the concert from the festival site had been moved there so Pure Prairie League was scheduled to go on instead.

I wasn't keen on hanging around Milestones at all, and I was mentally done with music a bit, so I took off. I stumbled on Boulder Coffee Co. (100 Alexander St.) on the way around town and stopped in. They're a locally-owned-and-operated shop that opened last Monday. They get their baked goods from Patrik's Culinary Kreations (847 S. Goodman St.) so it's all really good. It's got promise to be a pretty cool place to hang out.

On Friday I went to the Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) to see Van Gogh. Jim Healy introduced it and noted that it was probably closer an autography of director Maurice Pialat's life than a biography of Van Gogh himself. I thought it was rather a really good film. I got the impression that it was the filmmaking that was more biographical than the plot — the order that events were presented along with the manner each was presented and the amount of time spent on each topic seemed to be more important than the actual chronology.

What amused me the most was the "Artiste wannabe" crowd — at the end of the film I heard several comments on how the music on the credits was so loud and that maybe they made a mistake between reels, and there was a non-stop flow of criticism concerning the technical aspects of the filmmaking. I thought this was immensely amusing since I found the film as a whole to paint a picture (sorry) of the aura and spirit of Van Gogh as an artist in the time in which he lived, and I even found the overbearing music over the credits to be amusing, implying perhaps that the people involved with making the film wanted to be known more than the subject of the film.

On a final thought, isn't it weird that when you break out of your routine that instead of being a scary world of unknowns, it becomes an amazing world of opportunity?

T H U R S D A Y

Tonight's Party in the Park at The High Falls Festival Site (Browns Race and Commercial St.) starting around 5:30 p.m. features the awesome zydeco band Buckwheat Zydeco. [source: City Hall press release] [all ages] Java's (16 Gibbs St.) will be hosting Next Station starting around 8:30 p.m. [source: Java's calendar] [all ages] Park and Berkeley St. (online map) will be hosting Jazznik starting around 6:30 p.m. [source: WBER calendar] [all ages] The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) will be hosting slightly sweetened superb rock-and-roll from The Juliet Dagger, The Yards, and The Straightaways starting around 9:30 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar] [18+] Tonight at SoHo East (East Avenue near Alexander, formerly Tonic) is Derek and the Deck Chairs starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: the proverbial grapevine] Pure Kona Poetry Open Mic Night is at Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) tonight starting at 7:30. [source: Daily Perks calendar] [all ages] Tonight, Friday night, and Saturday night at 9:30 p.m. is the River of Light laser show at The High Falls Gorge (Pont De Rennes Bridge.) [source: City Hall press release] [all ages]

F R I D A Y

Over at The Club at Water Street (204 N. Water St.) starting around 8 p.m. is Navar, and Anna May. [source: Water Street calendar] [all ages] Over at Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) starting around 8 p.m. is quick-witted soloist Allen Power, great guitarist and singer Kinloch Nelson, and charismatic soloist Scott Regan. [source: Daily Perks calendar] [all ages] This evening at The Genesee Center for the Arts (713 Monroe Ave.) is Cirque: a Summer Soiree and Selections from Two Years of Collaborative Art featuring the art and photography of local artists and the makers of Identity through Art: Six Rochester Asian American Artists starting at 7 p.m. [source: Tribe.net event] The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Passe ton bac d'abord (Graduate First) starting at 8 p.m. An honest and humorous view of teenage discovery ... [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages]

S A T U R D A Y

O'Bagelo's, 165 State Street, noon. This afternoon at Writers and Books (740 University Ave.) is Allen Hopkins starting around 2 p.m. [source: Rochester Music Coalition calendar] [all ages] Iowa will be at Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) starting around 8 p.m. [source: Daily Perks calendar] [all ages] Tonight at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) is a night of rockabilly with Lords of the Highway, The Whiskey Daredevils, and The White Devils starting around 10:45 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar] Starry Nites Café (696 University Ave., formerly Moonbeans) will be hosting great harmonizing cover band Red Branch starting around 9 p.m. [source: Starry Nites calendar] [all ages] Mike Tamburo, and Raccoo-oo-oon will be at A|V Art Sound Space (#8 in the Public Market, off N. Union St., formerly The All-Purpose Room) starting around 10:45 p.m. [source: artsound website] [all ages] Tonight's another Betty's Sing-a-Long at Betty Meyer's Bullwinkle Café (622 Lake Ave.) starting around 10.

S U N D A Y

This afternoon from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Daily Perks (389 Gregory St.) is a booksigning by Eileen Loveman for her new book, Rhythm and Rhymes of the Heart 2002-2004 [source: Daily Perks calendar] [all ages] Tonight is the last night to see the art of Mike Twohig at A|V Art Sound Space (#8 in the Public Market, off N. Union St., formerly The All-Purpose Room) The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing What's New, Pussycat? starting at 8 p.m. A "swinging sixties" comedy about fears of marriage in a time of sexual freedom. [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] Today from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. is another Community Garage Sale at The Rochester Public Market (280 Union St. N.) [source: City Hall press release]

M O N D A Y

Tonight at The Little (240 East Ave.) at 9:15 p.m. is another in the Emerging Filmmakers Series featuring Rocco Primavera by Phil Snyder, Chasing Fate by Jeff Burns, Lower East Side Stories by Liselle Mei, The Liars by Nicholas Gurewitch, Monastic Life: The Abbey of the Genesee by Paulo Almeida and Joshua Morrell, poetica.cinema. by Zoje Stage, and everything is beautiful by Jon Karafin. Norm Davis' Wide Open Mike will be at Verb Café at Writers and Books (740 University Ave.) tonight at 7:30 p.m. [source: Writers and Books 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 Maplewood Neighborhood starting at The Maplewood Playground (Maplewood Dr. at Parkdale Terr., or thereabouts.) [source: City Hall press release] [all ages] The Mirrors, Army of Me, and The Cave Brides will be at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) starting around 10:45 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar] [18+] The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing The Notorious Landlady starting at 8 p.m. So did the landlady kill her husband? Find out in this thriller satire. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages] 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

National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day (half-staff until sunset) Today from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. at Aqueduct Park (Main Street by the river) is another of the Noontime Concerts featuring Tumbao. [source: City Hall press release] [all ages] The Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) will be showing Sous le soliel de satan (Under Satan's Sun) starting at 8 p.m. A priest has a hard time with faith in an inaccessible god. [source: Eastman House calendar] [all ages] 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]