The first time I planned on going to RMSC Strasenburgh Planetarium's Holiday Laser Show, I drove in through the Oxford Street entrance, joined the car queue circling for parking spaces, and 20 minutes later I left when I finally reached East Avenue. I don't know if it was the planetarium or the museum that was hoppin', but it was not my day to trip on the light fantastic. The next day I was blessed when I pulled into a space just as someone was leaving. As I walked into the domed building, I realized it was the first place I

With the three-way combo of it being First Friday the night before, a Saturday day instead of a Friday night opening reception, and the seven-hour long expanse of time, I didn't think Image City would be packed mid-day. But it was -- jam-packed, in fact, for the opening of "Elsewhere" on January 5. I guess with the more than 100 exhibitors in "Elsewhere," all having supportive friends and family, I should have figured that. These same friends and family gathering around their loved ones' pieces made it difficult to maneuver around what is already a tight fit in a fairly efficiently arranged

Imagine mapping a dance's movements. The results would look like a drawing made with a Spirograph. Now, imagine separating the movements of each dancer within that piece, and mapping those; a bunch of Spirograph drawings. This is the type of investigation that Elizabeth Streb conducts in her particular form of "pop-action" dance. She knows where each dancer will be, has been, and will go and the scientific equations of those actions. The physics and mathematics of movement. It's mind-boggling. It's extreme.Most dancers I know are light and airy. It's an art, after all. Streb takes the art of dance and creates

The Renaissance Art Gallery is in the beautiful HH Warner building on St Paul Street. It's a bit of NYC's Soho in downtown Rochester. Warner's old walk-in Mosler Safe, with its hand-painted door, still graces a hallway. And since I was last there, the gallery has expanded to occupy the entire first floor. Gone are Giovanni Sanfilippo's bright acrylics, replaced by the "Around Rochester" room and its related art. Originally, the gallery was a birthday present to Carol DiMarzo from her husband -- the gift that keeps on giving. Jan Jacque seems to perform a marriage between her ceramics and

I think it's really neat that we have a Hawaiian Center in Rochester. It's colorful, it's tropical, in a city that receives precious little sunshine. The Gallery Kauai Center for Hawaiian Studies & Performing Arts teaches everything from hula to ukulele, and there was quite a turn out for the Hawaiian dance at Pittsford Library on Saturday, January 12. The room was filled to capacity, many having to stand along the walls or sit on the floor once the seats were filled. But it was a happy and colorful crowd, each presented a Hawaiian lei as they entered, many of which were quickly

It pays to follow your instincts. I didn't know why I felt I should wear a suit, but I did. It didn't even make sense, considering what I had planned. After the Hawaiian Dance, I was going to see the Razorsharks. I'm not sure what someone is "supposed" to wear to a basketball game, but I'm pretty sure it's not a suit. A very informative arena employee named Terry led me to my courtside seat. We both agreed it will always be called the War Memorial to us. He also pointed out key people to me and patiently answered my

I am not getting married, but my friend is in October. So, with the promise of samples of wedding cake, she convinced me to go with her to the Brides World 2008 bridal show at the Convention Center. And since I'd never been to one, I figured, why not?Well, there was no cake. Not even a bakery was represented. Plenty of caterers, but only one served us food: meatballs and cookies. After the first few sales pitches my friend asked if I could please not let anyone else talk to her. She's much too polite. Except when she screamed out

With five well-known photographers showing, I was expecting the Community Darkroom Gallery's "Meet the Photographers" opening to be packed. As it is a rather small space, I also expected walls covered with photos. Not so, on either count. I walked in to find only two people and 25 prints. That's approximately five prints per photog, which sounds adequate, but there was way more white wall space exposed. I'm wondering why they didn't show more, maybe placing them two-up, instead of the steady stream of one photo after another. No, they wouldn't have to put them almost on the floor like at Image

I was a cheerleader back in high school. Then, I lived in The South, where it was a big deal. It was athletic, gymnastic, unlike the sing-song of northern cheerleading I found when I moved up here. My try-out number was 75 -- yes, I still remember, because getting on the team felt like the biggest accomplishment I'd had to date. Feeling accomplished is a good thing at any age, but especially during puberty when it's so easy to feel like an outsider. High arches of sparkle eye shadow, bare midriffs, mini skirts, and girly squeals were the common denominators

Steve Kurtz is a rebel rouser. And in the post-9/11, "you're either with us, or against us" backlash, he is a strange beacon of hope. While the mass majority leans back pretending to be unaware of violations to our civil rights, Kurtz's life-as-art-performance intervention art illustrates it for us. Avoiding the nihilism of pranks, he prods us to see things for ourselves.As he describes it, it's not what he does that is considered so unacceptable; it's how he mixes and mingles it that elicits the authorities' seeming need for what he calls "expression management." Interdisciplinary studies are on the frontline for