I
get a kick out of you
So
you’ve punched out your anger management instructor and you can no longer see
you feet. You look like a pansy on an exercise bike and slugging walls just
leaves you cold.
           It’s time to don some gloves and
come out swingin’ at the MetroCenter YMCA’s kickboxing classes.
           My once-limber frame has begun to
sound like a haunted house — creaking and popping sounds resonate in my
joints when I simply get up. I decided I could use some flexibility, agility,
and stamina to counter the ongoing ravages of age.
           My initial misconception was that
kickboxing classes are filled with angry, ex-commando types or overweight
divorcees, fed up with coffee cake and General
Hospital. And I didn’t relish the thought of some cross-eyed jarhead in a
crew cut barking at me.
           I was dragged to my first kickboxing
class kicking (not too high) and screaming. Now I love it. In reality,
instructors like the YMCA’s Geoff Reed are patient and encouraging, and the
participants are anything but militant or desperate.
           “I just wanted to fit into my
wedding dress,” says kickboxing student Neerja Sethi. Sethi keeps active with
spin classes and hiking, but she liked the fact kickboxing’s intensity helped
her shed those “few extra pounds.”
           Working out in a group helps ease
the self-consciousness felt by those of us with about as much rhythm as Pat
Boone. And by the time your pounding heart rate catches up to the accompanying
techno music’s relentless throb, you’re soaked with sweat and relief. Anger,
along with energy and pounds, melts away.
           You too can have a ball and justify
all those hamburgers and chili-cheese fries. Reed’s kickboxing classes take
place every Tuesday from 6 to 6:55 p.m. at the MetroCenter YMCA, 444 East Main
Street. 325-2880.
—
Frank De Blase
We’re
loud, not proud
Our
well-decibelled city has won a dubious distinction: A lobbying group called Noise Free America (www.noisefree.org)
has awarded Rochester its “Noisy Dozen” award for September. The award rests in
large part on Rochester’s large population of “boom cars.”
           “Rochester citizens live in a world
of constant rumble, thump, and boom,” says local organizer James Kaufmann,
founder of the Rochester Soundscape
Society. Kaufmann, a jazz-classical pianist who wants more “acoustical
responsibility” out there, was instrumental in bringing the award home.
           The 19th Ward resident does say
Mayor Bill Johnson “seems to understand the gravity of the problem,” and he
approvingly cites a Rochester ordinance that prohibits various types of noise
pollution. But law or no law, says Kaufmann, the city’s “soundscape is still
miserable.” He notes that even the Eastman School of Music’s Kilbourn Hall,
which had a soundproofing workover some years ago, can’t insulate performances
from external boom attacks.
           The Rochester Soundscape Society has
had two meetings so far and is growing, says Kaufmann. The next meeting:
Tuesday, September 17, 8 p.m., at the Berean Café, 2203 Clifford Avenue.
Lux
loungin’
Two
new local watering holes have sprung up at the tail end of this summer’s
drought. The most recent is Lux Lounge,
located at the slightly Satanic address 666 South Avenue. Freelance
photographer Karrie Laughton (whose work has previously appeared in City) opened the hipster hangout in
early September, and it soon attracted a flock of jaded, black-clad bohemians
(read: she invited her former colleagues at City
to help celebrate the opening).
           As the name implies, the Lounge has
a laid-back yet classy atmosphere. That is, it’s kinda dim inside. There’s cool
artwork on the walls and some funky furnishings, like a table that literally
has legs. Any air of pretentiousness is filtered by the presence of a
blue-collar rock-stocked jukebox and a backyard full of enough picnic tables to
seat a family reunion. Lux opens late (9 p.m.), apparently to accommodate
vampires during long summer evenings.
           The other recent arrival is Matthew’s East End Grill, located at
200 East Avenue, next to Spot Coffee. If you haven’t noticed it yet, blame city
government. Matthew’s has been open since early August, but has gotten tangled
in red tape as it tries to get Preservation Board approval for its sign (a
portrait of famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted drinking a beer —
the Board contends that Olmsted preferred Zima).
           Like the Lux Lounge, the atmosphere
at Matthew’s falls somewhere between high-brow and Löwenbräu. It’s a sports
bar, but it doesn’t look — or smell — like a junior-high jock’s bedroom.
There’s a clean, modern feel to the place, accentuated by arches and a
stainless steel bar. The proprietors include a former owner of The Sports Page
on Monroe Avenue and two guys from J. W. Prepps on Park Avenue. The menu
reflects this, offering both greasy grub, a la the Page, and slightly pricier
dinners, like the Park Avenue restaurants you bring a date to before boozing
with your buddies at Prepps.
‘Am
not’ vs. ‘Are too’
There’s
nothing “special” about Rochester billionaire Tom Golisano. At least, that’s what his campaign is claiming in
response to a complaint filed with the New York State Board of Elections on
behalf of Green Party candidate Stanley
Aronowitz.
           The Aronowitz camp takes issue with
TV ads promoting Golisano as the only gubernatorial candidate not funded by
“special interests.” A September 5 Green Party press release insists that
Aronowitz, a professor and author in Manhattan, has refused to accept money
from either “corporate” or “special” interests. It also questions Golisano’s commitment
to campaign finance reform.
           “Rather than having a system where
special interests buy candidates, Mr. Golisano seems to want one where the
special interests are the candidates,” Aronowitz is quoted as stating.
           The formal complaint, filed by
attorney Mark Dunlea, refers to an August 31 Associated Press story in which
Golisano campaign manager Charles Halloran seems to hedge on the ads’ claim.
After declaring he won’t pull the spots, Halloran is quoted as saying: “Let me
say that we’re the only candidate running on the Independence, Democratic,
Republican, and Conservative lines that does not accept special-interest
money.” The complaint asks the Board to levy a $1,000 fine for each time the ad
has run.
           Ernest Baynard, the Golisano camp’s
communications director, says it’s hypocritical of Aronowitz to employ a trial
lawyer (ostensibly Dunlea), to “grab headlines” over the issue, “given that
they [trial lawyers] are special interests themselves.”
           Dunlea could not be reached for
comment.
           According to Baynard, “Tom
Golisano’s definition of quote-unquote ‘special interests’ is anyone who
contributes to a political campaign with the intent to unduly influence the
candidate now or when in office.” The only “guarantee” a candidate won’t be compromised
is if he or she is self-financed, Baynard says.
           As of September 9, Baynard said the
campaign had neither been fined nor contacted by the Board.
           If it makes Golisano and Aronowitz
feel any better, we think they’re both special in their own wonderful ways.
Boaters
floaters
Two
years ago, the International Joint
Commission, a US-Canada body that has oversight of the Great Lakes and St.
Lawrence River systems, empanelled a committee to report on water levels and
related issues. Now the committee, with help from a Public Advisory Group of
citizens and public officials, has put out its “Year One Report.”
           We’re sure many Rochesterians will
zero in on the report’s lake-level data. After all, boaters, fishers, and other
“users” of Lake Ontario, etc., have immediate worries. Will they be able to
dock the cabin cruiser? Will next winter’s ice make a pretzel of the dock? Will
the wave action undermine the cottage and shorten the back yard? Then there are
the commercial interests, of course, who want to know if there’s enough water
to float their boat. And regulators wonder if levels are low enough to, say,
keep some shore areas in southern Québec from flooding. It’s a complicated
business.
           Almost lost in the competition are
the lakes, rivers, ponds, and shores themselves, and their ecosystems. We did
see this note in the Year One Report, however, about water levels in Lac
Saint-François, a shallow, wildlife-rich widening of the St. Lawrence just this
side of Montréal: Levels there “are currently maintained within a 30 cm (one
foot) variation compared to natural variation of about 1.5 metres (five feet)…
Pleasure boaters find this an ideal arrangement, while environmental interests
are concerned with the loss of wetland vegetation variety due to more constant
levels.” In short, it’s Ecology 101. Bodies of water need wide fluctuations so
some species can take hold during “down times,” while others establish
themselves during the up’s. They used to call it the balance of nature.
           But ecology is almost beside the point,
to some. Right now, for example, a US Army Corps of Engineers’ “Great Lakes
Navigation System Review” is being vetted in Washington. The review looks at
the necessity and feasibility of “replumbing,” or widening and deepening, the
connecting channels along the shipping route from Montréal to Duluth,
Minnesota. The big factor here is larger ships. A Corps spokesperson tells us a
final decision on the plan may be made this fall. But environmentalists are
watching. For example, Great Lakes United, a Buffalo-based watchdog group, is
urging opposition to any replumbing. The group fears dredging and
channelization will disrupt some habitats and help new exotic species invade
our waters. (See www.glu.org for more information. The Corps of Engineers
Detroit office posts information at www.lre.usace.army.mil.)
This article appears in Sep 11-17, 2002.
